Hyacinth Simpson, RN
Hyacinth Simpson, RN
Staff Nurse
NYC Health + Hospitals/Jacobi
29 years of service
Hyacinth Simpson vividly recalls how a childhood encounter changed her life.
“As a child growing up in Jamaica, my mother was hospitalized multiple times,” she said. “The nurse who was taking care of her, took it upon herself to find me and my siblings – who lived about 40 miles from the hospital, so that she could tell her that her children were OK. As I got older, images of that nurse coming to visit solidified my choice to become a nurse. Her actions epitomized a ‘real’ nurse.”
Simpson became an RN in 1992 with a certificate in critical care nursing. During her 29-year career at NYC Health + Hospitals/Jacobi, she has worked in several different departments including the Medical/Surgical and Adult Emergency Departments. For the past four years, she has worked in the Hyperbaric Chamber. She is also a registered yoga instructor.
“My heartfelt desire is to assist in the relief of patients’ pain and to offer comfort in all the ways I can so that ultimately they will return to their fully functional selves,” she says.
She considers “empathy and compassion” to be among her strongest values. “My approach is based on the golden rule, which is applied every time I offer patient care. My nursing career gives me the opportunity to take care of others, and I have been able to offer the best care holistically to many patients.”
Sometimes, this involves helping patients look their best. Simpson said that while working on the Medical/Surgical unit, she was providing morning care to a patient, which included shaving. “He was pending discharge three days later and insisted that I shave him before he was discharged,” she recalls.