Mrityunjaya Billur is a diabetes specialist nurse here at CUH. Also known as Jay, we talked to him as part of our Diwali celebrations.
Today we are celebrating Diwali at CUH. What is Diwali?
Diwali, or Deepawali, is a festival of lights. Deepa means light and Wali means row. It symbolises the spiritual victory of light over darkness, good over evil, and knowledge over ignorance’ and is celebrated over five days.
What does Diwali personally mean to you?
For me personally Deepawali means improving knowledge - build on the knowledge you have, build on the strengths you have, and setting new goals to make progress in life.
How will you be celebrating?
I ensure we have time together as a family to celebrate. We either make or buy sweets, we wear our traditional clothes, we clean and tidy up our home and decorate it with lights.
This is the time to reflect on our achievements as a family. We remember what our ancestors did to make our lives better, and their struggle to preserve the knowledge.
Deepawali brings the religious aspect to the celebrations.
What is your role in our hospitals?
I am a diabetes specialist nurse.
What do you enjoy most about your role and working at CUH?
I enjoy supporting patients, their families and staff to help manage diabetes while the patients are in hospital. I also support patients who attend the clinic as an outpatient. I really enjoy empowering patients and their families to better manage their health.
Could you tell us about your CUH journey?
I joined the Trust in 2015 as a staff nurse in the neurosciences critical care unit (NCCU). I joined the diabetes team in 2017, around the time of Deepawali, when an opportunity arose, and I have been working here since.
What does a usual day look like?
Every day brings something new to learn and to improve my knowledge. CUH is a busy organisation and it’s great that we get to coordinate work with wider teams and multi-disciplinary professionals.
How do you feel your role benefits our patients?
My role helps to prevent short term complications and help patients/families to set long term goals to prevent issues arising from poor diabetes management.
Our aim is to prevent delay in discharging patients and avoid admissions, assisting patients to manage their health at home.
I enjoy working here at CUH. I look forward to coming to work and continuing to make a difference. My role provides opportunities to develop my knowledge and improve my skills as a nurse.