Nurse Practitioner Joy Ryskoski's initial interest in medicine sparked from visiting her father who was hospitalized at Marshfield Medical Center, formerly St. Joseph's Hospital, for four months in Marshfield.
“During those four months, I spent countless hours sitting in my dad's hospital room, watching the staff come and go," she said. “It was clear to me after watching how they took care of my mom and dad. I knew right away that this career was for me. I needed to be able to make that kind of difference for someone."
Joy enjoys family medicine because she is passionate about health maintenance, chronic disease prevention and coordinating her patients' care.
“I love to be able to help people manage all of the stuff in their life," she said. “I want to get them to the specialist they need and be their coordinator of care."
In her practice, Joy values addressing her patients' needs and wants using common, easy-to-understand language to help them understand even complex health care. Additionally, Joy is an LGBTQ+ affirming provider and has expertise in gender affirming care.
“I want patients to walk out of my office feeling like they understand what's going on, and that they have somebody involved in their care who cares and understands them," she said.
Joy went to Northern Technical College in Wausau for her associate degree, then worked at 7N at Marshfield Medical Center (hospital). After getting married in 1997, she moved to Medford, where she worked for a nursing home, and then family practice physicians for 17 years. In 2016, Joy went on to earn her bachelor's degree and master's in nursing at Chamberlain University in Chicago.
Joy and her husband, Mark, have two adult children – a son and a daughter. She enjoys reading, puzzles, travel and UTVing.