Feeling ecstatic, I am joining hospital department (9)
I believe the answer is:
sentiment
'feeling' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'ecstatic i am joining hospital department' is the wordplay.
'ecstatic' becomes 'sent' (I've seen this in other clues).
'i am' becomes 'im'.
'joining' says to put letters next to each other.
'hospital department' becomes 'ent'.
'sent'+'im'+'ent'='SENTIMENT'
(Other definitions for sentiment that I've seen before include "judgement" , "Tender feeling" , "General feeling" , "Emotion, self-indulgent or insincere perhaps" , "Test men in, say, emotion" .)