Celebrate Nurses Day with Joyce Kyung, DNP '21

Did you know that Friday, May 6th marks Nurses Day and is the first day of National Nursing Week? Nurses make up a huge part of the healthcare workforce and as a leader in the health sciences, Chatham is extremely grateful for the work done by our nursing students, faculty, and alumni. In celebration of this occasion, we talked to DNP alumna, Joyce Kyung about what led her to nursing, the impact of her Chatham education, and how we can honor nurses today and always.

Tell us a little bit about what initially led you to nursing as a profession.

Joyce Kyung: I have always felt that nursing is more than the profession I practice. It is who I am—a state of being more than doing. I clearly remember being an undergraduate psychology student in New York City, in the early 2000s, and living in the dormitories next to the nursing students’ tower. We would share a lobby and a shuttle bus to the main campus, which often resulted in me asking questions about their schedules and their experiences. I could see their commitment and feel their passion when they talked about their clinical rotations, and what started as curiosity for me turned into pure conviction. The more I learned about nursing, the more I wanted to embark on its journey. And so I did. After graduating with a bachelor of arts in psychology, I joined the accelerated baccalaureate nursing program at New York University and became a nurse. I have enjoyed every minute of this choice. Through the ups and even the downs (because I feel that is when I have learned the most), through promotions and setbacks, lessons lived and lessons learned, I continue to confidently choose to be a nurse every single day.

Tell us a little bit about your current position and what led you there.

JK: I am currently a cardiology certified registered nurse practitioner at St. Clair Health, a 329 bed acute-care medical center that provides high quality healthcare to the residents of southwestern Pennsylvania. I specialize in inpatient and outpatient heart failure as well as outpatient stress testing. Chatham University led me here, and St. Clair Health’s mission, values, and culture inspired me to stay.

St. Clair’s cardiac rehabilitation center is where my Doctor of Nursing Practice evidence-based practice capstone project flourished. With the hospital’s unwavering support, I was able to implement an inter-professional, self-care focused, heart failure patient education intervention to enhance disease-related knowledge and improve medication adherence. We met one benchmark and positively impacted both outcomes, but more importantly, we nurtured an environment of collaboration for the empowerment of our patients. In the end, we built long-lasting relationships with our patients and other providers, which gave way to role-modeling and mentoring.

One of those mentors truly believed in the power of inter-professional collaboration and the ability of nurses to lead interdisciplinary teams. Dr. Christopher Pray had a vision for his heart failure patients, and saw in my project an opportunity to better serve our community. He kindly shared that vision with me and together we started the St. Clair Health Congestive Heart Failure Clinic in April 2022.

What does an average work day look like for you?

JK: I do a combination of nuclear stress testing, ECG treadmill testing, and stress echocardiography every morning and I see congestive heart failure clinic patients almost every afternoon. There are weeks in which I only cover the inpatient heart failure service and spend all day in the hospital. I truly enjoy being able to provide care in both inpatient and outpatient settings. This crossover allows me to strongly support my patients through the provision of care at any and almost all points of their illness-recovery continuum.

What led you to pursuing your DNP at Chatham?

JK: I started my DNP journey with Chatham back in January of 2020. I was practicing as a cardiology nurse practitioner in New York City at the time. I was looking for a program that would not only align with my values, but that (realistically) could also afford me the flexibility that I needed as a full-time healthcare professional and a full-time mom of a lovely (and very active) toddler. Chatham met all the requirements and checked all the boxes on my “life list.” Chatham University prides itself in preparing students “to build lives of purpose, value, and fulfilling work,” and that is exactly what Chatham’s DNP program did for me. My capstone project gave way to significant practice changes and now I am the first Doctor of Nursing Practice with St. Clair Medical Group Cardiology, seeing patients in their first CRNP-led Congestive Heart Failure Clinic.

What was the highlight of earning your DNP at Chatham?

JK: Honestly, the highlight was attending the program itself. I had the most amazing and supportive professors, the kindest advisors, and I had the opportunity to connect with incredibly talented nurses from all over the country. The residency experience was phenomenal.

Friday, May 6 is Nurses Day in the U.S. How can we better support and show appreciation for nurses in our society?

JK: Respect. In my opinion, respect is one of the greatest forms of appreciation. Respect the student that cannot wait to complete his/her/their program so they can begin to take care of you and your loved ones. Respect the novice nurse that is learning how to time manage so they can provide you with the care you need in a prompt yet safe manner. Respect the expert nurse that has chosen, day-by-day, to return to work and to share their knowledge so they can help heal you. Respect the administrative and case manager nurses that work days, nights, holidays, and weekends to make sure there is always someone by your side when you are in need. Respect your advanced practice nurses who lead teams and create the plans of care that help you recover. Support us and appreciate us by respecting who we are and what we do.

What’s something you wish more people knew about nursing?

JK: I mentioned different nursing specialties, practice levels, and career pathways in my previous answer. I missed so many others trying to keep my answers short! This is something that I wish more people knew about nurses or nursing in general. We have different board certifications and different scopes of practice. Nurses wear an incredible number of hats. We are resourceful and we are fierce, but we are also objective, highly trained professionals.

Anything else?

JK: I would like to end this interview with this message: Role-model excellence. Be the provider/clinician/administrator/support staff that you want others to be. Promote a culture of care, collaboration, and evidence-based practice. Learn as much as you can, for as long as you can, and then teach. Find your mentor and mentor others. Believe in yourself and know that you are not alone.

If you’re curious about exploring nursing programs at Chatham, we’ve got you covered! Chatham offers online undergraduate and graduate nursing programs to help prepare nurses in a variety of healthcare settings. Click here to explore nursing at Chatham.