- Joice moved from India to the UK and found a rewarding career in the NHS
- His colleagues on Ward B2 helped him feel at home and part of a family
- He credits the team with teaching him compassion, teamwork and lifelong skills
A healthcare assistant has opened up about finding a new family on a ward at Royal Bolton Hospital, more than 5,000 miles away from his birthplace in India.
Joice Joy was born and raised in the state of Kerela in southwest India, where he spent time studying journalism, literature and communication and dreamed about where life might take him.
Fast-forward a few years and Joice is now a much-loved and well-respected Healthcare Assistant at Bolton NHS Foundation Trust, as he sets out on an ambitious career in the NHS.
After experiencing the highs and lows of leaving behind his home in India, Joice has written a heartfelt blog that captures the journey of finding a new home.
It began in 2022 when he moved to the UK to study his Master’s in Intercultural Business Communication. During his studies, he started a job working twenty hours a week at a care home.
Although it wasn’t immediately clear, this opened eyes to wanting to make a difference in other people’s lives by joining the NHS for opportunities to grown, learn and develop his career.
A series of job applications followed, until one day he clicked on a job advert for a Healthcare Assistant at Bolton NHS Foundation Trust. An application which Joice said ‘completely changed his life’.
“It wasn’t just the beginning of a new job. It was the beginning of finding another family.”
From the moment Joice arrived on his first day for induction, Joice felt the warmth from his new team on ward B2 and recalled how he felt leaving the ward that day.
“Sometimes first impressions don’t just make you feel welcome. Something they make you feel safe. I still had no idea that the people waiting inside that ward would one day become some of the most important people in my life.”
Joice’s first-day nerves quickly disappeared following the warm introductions and gentle guidance from those around him.
“Your first shift can determine how you feel about a workplace. Mine made me feel like I belonged.
“That afternoon, something unexpected happened. The fear slowly disappeared. Nobody made me feel like an outsider. Everyone smiled. Everyone helped. Everyone asked whether I was okay.”
Within the blog Joice celebrated each of the team members around him and for the part they played in making him feel so welcome. From being able to learn from their skills and expertise to sharing laughs along the way, Joice wrote how he quickly went from being “the new HCA” to simply being called “Joice”.
“That meant more to me than anyone probably realised. Every workplace has people who quietly become its heartbeat. In B2, I was lucky enough to meet many of them.”
“We all had bad days. We all became tired. We all became stressed. Sometimes we laughed until our stomachs hurt. Sometimes we were emotionally drained after losing patients we had grown attached to.
“Sometimes we finished twelve-hour shifts wondering how we had managed to get through them. But we got through them together. That is what made B2 different. It wasn’t perfection that made us a family. It was the fact that everyone carried someone else’s burden without even being asked.
“I never had to face it alone. That is something I will carry with me for the rest of my life.”
The experiences Joice has gained on B2 over the past few years have equipped him with skills he’ll use for the rest of his life.
“The greatest lessons I learned on B2 were never written inside hospital policies. They were taught through people. Through smiles. Through patience. Through encouragement. Through kindness.
“I arrived in B2 hoping to build a career. Instead… I found mentors. People who reminded me every single day that compassion is not measured by your job title. It is measured by how you make another human being feel.”
You can read Joice’s full blog on his Blogger page ‘The Book of Thoughts’. To see what career opportunities are currently available at Bolton NHS Foundation Trust, please visit their ‘Work for us’ page.
