She was born in Bergen as a daughter of teacher and military officer Wessel Joachim Reehorst Joys (1841–1922) and Lina Storjohann (1841–1925).
[1] After primary school, Joys travelled to Berlin in 1892 to undergo nursing education at the institution Victoriahaus.
[1][2] She was credited (together with Camilla Struve and Betty Bull) with planning and establishing the first three-year nursing education in Norway.
At this course they also pioneered the pre-training school, a theoretical course that aspiring nurses had to attend before entering the practical training.
She thus became known as one of the first nurses to volunteer in a catastrophic setting abroad—already from her study days she had been an admirer of Florence Nightingale.