Nurse: Award ‘comes from the heart’

LIJ Valley Stream Hospital nurse wins prestigious award

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To Jyothis Joy, being a nurse is about more than tending to the illnesses and injuries of patients – instead, nursing is about “healing” human beings. 

Joy, a medical and surgical unit nurse at Long Island Jewish Valley Stream Hospital, was recently named a winner of the Daisy Award, a prestigious distinction in nursing awarded to nurses who exhibit exceptional compassion toward patients.

“As a nurse, we have the opportunity to heal the mind, soul, heart and body of our patients,” Joy said, explaining her approach to nursing. 

While nurses are typically nominated for the Daisy Award by colleagues, Joy, the first nurse to at the Valley Stream hospital to win the award, was nominated by 27 of her patients. She humbly credited this fact to her patient-centered approach. “It just makes me feel like I’m in this for a reason,” Joy said. “Nursing is my calling, and I am made for this.”

Joy, who has lived in Franklin Square since 2010 and began working at LIJ Valley Stream in 2008, works on a floor of the hospital’s medical surgical unit. Although she has treated Covid-19 patients, Joy was nominated for the award by patients she treated more recently, after the height of the pandemic. A typical day at the hospital for Joy, which spans between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., involves providing patients with medication and aiding doctors.

But the most important part of her day-to-day job, Joy said, is spending time with patients.

“Nursing is not just bedside nursing,” she said, explaining that she focuses on making patients feel seen and cared for. “They don’t think about the medications… your presence makes the patients more happy,” Joy said. “They may forget your name, but they will never forget how you made them feel,” she added. 

“We put some signage around the hospital encouraging our patients to recognize and thank their nurses with DAISY material from their foundation,” said LIJ Valley Stream hospital’s Chief Nursing Officer Terry Pando said. “Joy had twenty-seven nominations in an approximately six-to-eight-week period of time. No other nurse in the hospital received that amount of recognition from her patients, and it was always mentioned how caring she was, how she took her time with the patients and educated the patients,” Pando said.

Considering that a nurse is the “closest frontline medical personnel to the patient” the importance of high-quality nursing care cannot be overstated, according to Pando, because “they’re the ones in the room and at the bedside almost 24/7.” For a nurse like Joy to receive this award is proof of her living out the meaning of high-quality nursing care, which is about compassion, constantly assessing the patient’s needs, coordinating the after-hospital care, and contributing to a culture of dignity and respect among patients and co-workers.

“A constant attention by a good nurse is maybe just as important as a major surgery by a surgeon,” Joy said, stressing the importance she places on deeply caring for patients. “You hold every patient’s hand and make them comfortable,” she added, describing her attentiveness to each patient’s wellbeing. Joy said spending time with patients is the most rewarding part of her job. “Nursing is more than just working on the bedside, you impact people in many ways,” she said. 

Unlike doctors, Joy said, nurses spend hours alongside patients. “We are with them the whole day, so we can see their pain, their soul, we can see more than any other disciplines in the hospital. Joy said her attentiveness to patients during these hours stems from the maxim of the golden rule: “Treat others the way you want to be treated.” She said her Catholic faith, which she was introduced to in India, where she was raised, drives her passion for caring for patients.

Joy served as a mentor to her sisters in law, Treesa Joseph and Anupa Kisho, who are also nurses at LIJ Valley Stream Hospital. “They’re so happy for me,” Joy said of Joseph’s and Kisho’s reaction to her winning the Daisy Award.

“She is the nurse preceptor[a senior nurse mentor] for most of the [young nurses] because she’s that good,” said fellow nurse and sister-in-law Treesa Joseph. “She was my preceptor for a few days when I joined. From that time till now, I admire her not only as a good nurse but as a good manager and mentor, helping to mentor the nurses and managing the floor while taking care of patients.” Joseph, who graduated from nursing in India and who faced a steep learning curve transitioning to an American health system, relied on Joy’s example to help her come into her own as a nursing professional.        

The award also marks a major milestone for the hospital in its larger journey toward a higher standard of nursing excellence and the tall expectations set for the hospital as a whole. “We’re in a culture of striving for excellence. You just set expectations and prepare the staff and make them always aware [of those standards].”

With their first DAISY winner, Pando confirmed that LIJ plans to submit nursing nominations for the DAISY award on a quarterly basis. She hopes this recognition will add fuel to a bigger goal the nursing team has set their sights on: to join seven other Northwell Health hospitals in achieving MAGNET status, a nationwide recognition said to be the gold standard in nursing care and innovation.

Originally from India, Joy’s path to LIJ Valley Stream Hospital began when she would spend hours in the hospital with her grandmother in India, who suffered from heart failure and was frequently hospitalized. As a young child, she spent hours watching nurses and doctors care for her grandmother.

Joy’s grandmother, who viewed nursing as a respected career, urged her to pursue a career in nursing. “My passion for nursing was definitely influenced by my grandmother,” she said.

Joy, who turns 40 on April 4, received a bachelor’s degree at an Indian university in 2004 and worked in India for two years as a cardio thoracic nurse, inspired by her aunt and another sister in law who became RNs. She moved to the U.S. in 2007 with her husband, and once she received a state nursing license she began working at LIJ Valley Stream Hospital.

Since then, Joy has never looked back. Through her emphasis on caring deeply for patients, Joy said she has changed for the better as an individual. A nurse, she said, is “A person who is strong enough to tolerate anything and soft enough to understand anyone.”

But to Joy, winning the Daisy Award served not as proof of her success, but rather as a reminder of what she sees as her duty as a nurse: “To me this award means I need to continue to work hard,” she said. “I strive to give the best care possible to all our patients at LIJ Valley Stream Hospital.”