Joe’s Story

“People ask me, ‘how did you get here?’ and I tell them, I stand on the shoulders of the nurses before me. They have lifted me up and have provided me with a basis for which I can build my own practice.” – Joe Myler, RN

Compassion Heals

Joe Myler, veteran and critical care outreach nurse at Asante Ashland Community Hospital (AACH), exemplifies the hospital’s core values of excellence, respect, honesty, service and teamwork. In his work as a healthcare provider, he values connecting with patients one-on-one and supporting his team through hard times.

When Joe and his family moved to Ashland in 2012, he was hired in the Intensive Care Unit at Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center. Through some of the most life-altering moments of his life, including the loss of his twelve-year-old daughter, Joe found community through his colleagues at Asante.

“I wouldn’t have made it through that time if it wasn’t for the support of the ICU people I worked with. They showed up at my house. They brought me food. They were there to support me in whatever way I needed. It is a gift that can never be repaid. You can only aspire to show that level of kindness.”

Joe made the shift over to Asante Ashland Community Hospital in 2022 where he works as one of several critical care outreach nurses who fill the niche need of responding to patient emergencies in the hospital and bringing critical care expertise to the bedside for Ashland patients. That same year, Joe began to confront his own underlying post-traumatic stress disorder and was looking for ways to mitigate the effects of trauma in his life. By participating in therapy offered through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and focusing more on self-care, he began to address the stress and grief causing him anxiety.

“As health care providers who are professionals who help others, it is a common occurrence to not include ourselves in the grace that we grant to others.”

He sought out an activity where he could expend some of his nervous energy and still be creative. So, he taught himself to crochet. When he finished a baby blanket, he realized that he could donate it to Ashland’s Family Birth Center. He started making hats, booties and blankets.

“I make a baby blanket, knowing it’s helping me, and when I bring the blanket to a nurse in the Family Birth Center, that nurse can use it to connect with their patient. I don’t need anyone to know that I made it as a nurse, or as a PTSD trauma survivor. What I want the patient to know is that someone in the community cares enough to know that your blanket is here to provide you and your family with warmth, memories, bonding. It’s going to help produce a core memory that you’re going to use as a family and hopefully grow that love like a seed. Hopefully it’ll help your heart remember to be full more than broken.”

Joe is quick to tell you that none of his accomplishments would be possible without the love and support of his wife and family through the years. Asante is incredibly fortunate to have nurse Joe Myler tending to our community with his generosity, his skill, and his full heart.

You can read an earlier story about Joe’s life-saving work in this Asante News article from 2019.