(NEXSTAR) – Tatyiany Valeriano has been working on the COVID ward at Mayo Clinic as a nurse’s assistant for a year and a half. Since the COVID-19 pandemic started, she says she’s seen she’s become altogether “immune” to death.
“We’ve been around death so much it becomes routine,” she said solemnly.
Valeriano, 22, is studying to become a nurse. Since the beginning of the pandemic, she’s had to question her chosen career path.
“Just last Tuesday alone, I was like, why did I pick a profession that has so much sadness and death? Was this a mistake? But then again I can’t picture doing anything else,” she said.
Valeriano recalled a three-month period — 22 shifts in all — in which someone died every single day.
“When you become a nurse, a lot of people don’t experience death like this,”
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