Joyce Nelson
May 2021
Joyce
Nelson
,
PhD
Augustana University
Sioux Falls
,
SD
United States
Most of us as nurses hope to make an impact in other’s lives for a day or a year, but to make an impact for forty years is nothing less than a superpower and certainly a gift from God.
Joyce served Augustana and its nursing department from 1967 to retirement in 1996. Despite dedicating decades of her life to Augustana, Joyce said she was stunned when her name was called to receive the DAISY Lifetime Achievement Award at Augustana’s Nurse Pinning Ceremony on May 21.
Along with surprise was gratitude to be recognized by a department into which she poured her heart and soul. Joyce is an alumnus of Augustana, graduating in 1956. Joyce was an assistant professor of public health nursing in Nebraska before joining Augustana’s faculty, where she integrated concepts from public health science and nursing to develop courses and supervise clinicals essential for national accreditation. “One thing I learned was that when you're trying to teach a student to give someone a shot, you don't line up everything and do everything systematically,” Joyce said. “Their greatest fear is poking. So, I would set the shot up and say, ‘Come on, let's get this over with.’ Take them over their greatest fear first.”
During her time at Augustana, Joyce, who served as chair of the nursing department, received her doctorate from another university. “We had a departmental goal that everybody who teaches here has a doctorate,” Joyce said. “And, it meant that we had to all step up to the plate and maybe do more than our contractual agreement. But the faculty members were awesome to pick up the slack.”
Returning to Augustana as faculty was like coming home for Joyce. “I feel like, at Augustana, we're stronger than just a group of people who came together — but we're working on the same mission and wanting the same thing for every student, but in a different way,” Joyce said. “We’re not cookie cutter, but what we would say is we’re like family in that we take you in.”
“I think the difference for me was that you weren't just a faculty member for the hour you had a lecture,” Joyce continued. “You were there to, as the philosophy says, help prepare young men and women for a life of Christian service. And, I think that our faculty really does that.”
"Joyce had a phrase; she'd say, 'Our role as faculty is to prepare students to stand on our shoulders.' In other words, to go beyond where we are,” said a colleague of Nelson. This is not the only “Joyce-ism,” as the colleague called them, that she still remembers. “Students came back years and years later, and they would spout these little Joyce-isms, like, ‘Begin with people as they are in the situation as it is. Or, the family is the unit of service.’” “And, the one I really love was, ‘If you want to learn to control the mosquito, you have to think like a mosquito.’ I think some of those Joyce-isms really informed who they became as nurses.”
A former student commented, “I know my classmates would say the same. Most of us as nurses hope to make an impact in other’s lives for a day or a year, but to make an impact for forty years is nothing less than a superpower and certainly a gift from God.”
And finally, a former student commented: “We are all made with words. Words that enter our ears and go straight to our hearts and stay there, planted, growing roots and sprouting up just when we need them most. It’s been forty years since I sat in the classroom but her words still sprout up inside me when I need them most."
Along with surprise was gratitude to be recognized by a department into which she poured her heart and soul. Joyce is an alumnus of Augustana, graduating in 1956. Joyce was an assistant professor of public health nursing in Nebraska before joining Augustana’s faculty, where she integrated concepts from public health science and nursing to develop courses and supervise clinicals essential for national accreditation. “One thing I learned was that when you're trying to teach a student to give someone a shot, you don't line up everything and do everything systematically,” Joyce said. “Their greatest fear is poking. So, I would set the shot up and say, ‘Come on, let's get this over with.’ Take them over their greatest fear first.”
During her time at Augustana, Joyce, who served as chair of the nursing department, received her doctorate from another university. “We had a departmental goal that everybody who teaches here has a doctorate,” Joyce said. “And, it meant that we had to all step up to the plate and maybe do more than our contractual agreement. But the faculty members were awesome to pick up the slack.”
Returning to Augustana as faculty was like coming home for Joyce. “I feel like, at Augustana, we're stronger than just a group of people who came together — but we're working on the same mission and wanting the same thing for every student, but in a different way,” Joyce said. “We’re not cookie cutter, but what we would say is we’re like family in that we take you in.”
“I think the difference for me was that you weren't just a faculty member for the hour you had a lecture,” Joyce continued. “You were there to, as the philosophy says, help prepare young men and women for a life of Christian service. And, I think that our faculty really does that.”
"Joyce had a phrase; she'd say, 'Our role as faculty is to prepare students to stand on our shoulders.' In other words, to go beyond where we are,” said a colleague of Nelson. This is not the only “Joyce-ism,” as the colleague called them, that she still remembers. “Students came back years and years later, and they would spout these little Joyce-isms, like, ‘Begin with people as they are in the situation as it is. Or, the family is the unit of service.’” “And, the one I really love was, ‘If you want to learn to control the mosquito, you have to think like a mosquito.’ I think some of those Joyce-isms really informed who they became as nurses.”
A former student commented, “I know my classmates would say the same. Most of us as nurses hope to make an impact in other’s lives for a day or a year, but to make an impact for forty years is nothing less than a superpower and certainly a gift from God.”
And finally, a former student commented: “We are all made with words. Words that enter our ears and go straight to our hearts and stay there, planted, growing roots and sprouting up just when we need them most. It’s been forty years since I sat in the classroom but her words still sprout up inside me when I need them most."