Jessica Huckaby
As a nurse technician at Mason General Hospital and a full-time nursing student at South Puget Sound Community College, Jessica Huckaby has a full schedule.
The mom of three juggles classes (Monday and Thursday mornings, plus a half-day of lab work on Wednesdays) with her job at Mason General Hospital (Monday and Thursday afternoons and all-day Friday) and a day of clinical work at another hospital (Tuesdays).
The experience at Mason Health is proving to be the most valuable piece of her education — Mason Health moves Huckaby to a different floor at Mason General Hospital each quarter, to align with the skills she’s learning at nursing school.
By the time she leaves nursing school, she’ll have actual, hands-on experience within a variety of hospital environments.
“You can’t go wrong with this program,” Huckaby said. “Mason Health is offering a progressive program that is giving nursing students a better understanding of the entire health care team. When you’re done with nursing school, you’ll know where you belong.”
She first attended nursing school more than 15 years ago, but the onset and diagnosis of multiple sclerosis, and then raising her family, interrupted her schooling.
Huckaby used to work as a Health Room Assistant at Shelton High School before deciding to go back to nursing school.
She now serves as an ambassador for Mason Health’s new scholarship program and plans to visit the high school to share why Mason Health is the
right choice.
“Because of my experience, I can tell you that for a young nurse, this will make a difference,” Huckaby said. “It’s the difference between a nurse who will start out on the floor and feel scared and unsure to one who can walk out and say, ‘Yes, I’ve seen this. I know this. I can do this.’”
Read more at in the June 2022 issue of SCOPE magazine.