Miss Colorado Kelley Johnson made an appearance on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" on Wednesday and defended the "Just a Nurse" monologue that was mocked by comedians Joy Behar and Michelle Collins on "The View" earlier this week, E! News reported. Behar and Collins' comments on Johnson's monologue sparked outrage from nurses who defended the importance of their profession on social media with the hashtags "#NursesUnite" and "#NursesMatter."
"So a lot of people told me not to do a monologue for talent," Johnson told DeGeneres during the show. "But I am a nurse and I care, and that's my talent is taking care of people and caring about other people, so I wanted to give the nurses that don't have that voice that voice and that recognition."
Behar and Collins mocked Johnson for wearing scrubs and a stethoscope around her neck while she gave a monologue about caring for a patient with Alzheimer's disease as her talent during the 2016 Miss America pageant on Sunday, as previously reported by HNGN. Nurses were offended that "The View" co-hosts devalued their profession and shared their own experiences of saving lives on social media.
During the question portion of the pageant, Johnson was asked which female she thought should be on the $10 bill. Johnson said that she would like to see DeGeneres' face on the U.S. currency, and DeGeneres invited her on the show to thank her and give her praise for her monologue.
"It was a great monologue," DeGeneres said. " I love that you end saying you're not just a nurse. That's a very important job and you're doing a very important thing and you care about those people, which I love."
On a later episode of "The View," Behar and Collins apologized for their comments and said they were "misconstrued," HNGN reported.
Watch the full clip from "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" below.
