Nurses share a side to their profession that most people don't see

Photographer Carolyn Jones has a new respect for nurses after conducting more than 100 interviews with the medical professionals.

"They see us holistically and with an intimacy that few other people ever will," she told Business Insider.

Jones first began to understand the nurses role in healthcare after being diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005. "I always thought that nurses just take our temperature and blood pressure, or hold our hand and comfort us while we're waiting for the doctor to show up. But I was so wrong," she said.

So when given the opportunity by the health care company Fresenius Kabi to create a project that would celebrate nurses, Jones signed up. Her photographs and on-camera interviews have been collected in "The American Nurse." These images show a new side of the profession.