Joy Martin, regional director of oncology services for Franciscan Health System, received the 2009 March of Dimes Western Washington Distinguished Nurse of the Year Award in December.
This prestigious annual award, presented during a ceremony in Bellevue, honors a registered nurse whose contributions and accomplishments have had an extraordinary influence within the nursing profession.
“I am profoundly honored to have been chosen for this award,” Martin said. “Becoming a nurse was a calling for me. I feel blessed to be in nursing and to be affiliated with an organization like the Franciscan Health System.”
In addition to being a registered nurse, Martin has a master of science degree in nursing. She joined the Franciscan organization in 1981. As director of the organization’s comprehensive oncology service line, she directs the inpatient and outpatient cancer programs at St. Anthony Hospital in Gig Harbor, St. Joseph Medical Center in Tacoma, St. Francis Hospital in Federal Way and St. Clare Hospital in Lakewood. Martin also chairs the Franciscan Regional Clinical Standards Committee.
“Joy exemplifies a special combination of leadership and excellence in nursing,” said Laurie Brown, vice president and chief nursing officer for the Franciscan Health System. “Her ability to continue growing and learning while supporting others is a great example of what a seasoned, dedicated leader can be and mean to others.”
Since joining the Franciscan organization 28 years ago, Martin has served as a charge nurse, a nurse manager, and now as regional director of oncology. In this leadership role, she helped create the innovative Breast Navigator Program that helps women of ethnic minorities to overcome cultural, language and other obstacles to receiving breast-cancer screenings and diagnoses. Martin also collaborated with the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle to open a bone marrow transplant unit at St. Joseph Medical Center. With her leadership, Franciscan also earned accreditation as a Cancer Network Program by the American College of Surgeons in 2006.
“Joy is truly a patient-centric nursing leader,” said Jim Good, vice president for specialty services at Franciscan. “She never loses sight that our work is about the patient. Her experience makes Joy a sought-after content expert in many subjects. She is known for a collaborative approach to program building and problem solving. All of us at the Franciscan Health System are very proud of her and her accomplishments.”
Martin is the third Franciscan Health System nurse honored by the March of Dimes in two years. In 2008, Holly Snyder, a registered nurse in the intensive care unit at St. Francis Hospital, was named the Western Washington Nurse of the Year for excellence in patient and clinical care. Also in 2008, Shelly Pricco, who is director of patient care services at Enumclaw Regional Hospital, received the March of Dimes Nurse of the Year Award for leadership.
