A group of more than 40 nurses with more than 40 years of experience at NYU Langone Long Island campus in Mineola were honored for their service Tuesday.

"Nursing is such a part of you that is just comes very naturally," said registered nurse Eileen Magri.

Registered nurse Joan Trenkle said she remembers the caring moments the most.

"It's been very rewarding. I worked many, many years in dialysis helping people struggle through their dialysis treatments," Trenkle recalled.

"I think it's definitely a calling nursing absolutely a calling," said registered nurse Carol Hanrahan, who started as a candy striper at the hospital 40 years ago. "What meant so much to me is when a patient's family member or a patient they want to hug you, and we miss that. We miss that."

Magri added that working as a nurse during the pandemic was challenging and life changing.

"It was really a privilege to watch the teams work the way they did and be part of that," she said.

Magri also saved a toddler's life the night an Avianca Airlines plane crashed in Oyster Bay Cove back in 1990.

"We sent a team out to the crash site and we brought back to our ICU was a toddler, little girl. Her parents also were brought here as patients. all three of them survived," she recalled.

All three of the registered nurses said although it is hard work and long hours, there is nothing else they would rather dedicate their life to.

"It is not a job it. It is a profession and you have to be all in," Magri said.

National Nurses Week begins each year on May 6 and ends on May 12, which is Florence Nightingale's birthday.