Trained to advocate for their patients, nurses we spoke to feel called to stand up for Black lives and equality.

PORTLAND, Ore Many health care workers are among the nightly crowds of protesters.

Trained to advocate for their patients, many nurses say they feel called to stand up for Black lives and equality, and against systemic racism.

In light of George Floyd's death, registered nurse Travis Nelson couldn't sit idly by.

I realized that I could have been George Floyd. That could have been an officer's knee on my neck so it felt important to get out and bring attention to the cause of black lives matter once again, Nelson said.

More than 60 days later, he's still out there almost every single night. As a Black man and a nurse, Nelson has plenty of reasons that motivate him to do so.

Nurses become nurses because we care about people and we should care about people regardless of their skin color, Nelson said.

He stands alongside hundreds - even thousands - of other health care workers to fight back against systemic racism.

Its called systemic racism for a reason: there are systems that need to change," Nelson said. "Whether that's law enforcement and how they approach that or whether its health care and how we approach racial disparities in health care. I believe we're beginning to see some of that change but I don't want us to lose focus as a country, a state or here in Portland. We need to keep that focus on Black Lives Matter.

Over her decades-long career in ER's and ICU's, Adrienne Enghouse says she's seen inequities in access to care, health outcomes and even heard stories about employment issues.

We must fix this now and stand with our black brothers and sisters to fix it, Enghouse told KGW. That's why you see so many nurses and other health professionals doctors, techs, professionals out here because that's our training. We advocate for people all the time. And the system fails them.

Enghouse says she's looking to go a step further by using her skills as a volunteer medic at the protests, like Chris Wise.

He is using his EMT training to treat demonstrators hurt demonstrating in Portland's streets. While trying to treat people hit by tear gas, pepper spray, batons and flash bangs, he and a few other volunteer medics say they have been hit.

"Ive been shot in the leg trying to pull somebody out of tear gas. I got hit in the head last Tuesday from a tear gas canister. I still have concussion, Wise said.

They argue acts like that violate the constitution.

I believe that is in a coordinated effort to make it so we have less medics so people don't want to come out, Wise said. I'm going to be at the Justice Center as often as I can, as long as people are putting themselves in danger, as long as people are getting hurt and as long as people are firing tear gas and rubber bullets at them.

More:

Health care workers join in nightly protests on Portland's streets - KGW.com