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Jessica Gettys always knew she wanted to be in a career where she could give back and help people. Healthcare seemed like the perfect field to do that. Gettys’s sister, Jennifer Smith is a registered nurse at Texas County Memorial Hospital, and watching her go through nursing school further solidified Gettys desire to be in healthcare.
Despite knowing she wanted to go into healthcare, Gettys did not know what area within healthcare she wanted to be in. So, she attended Missouri State University—West Plains in pursuit of an associate’s degree as a starting place.
During her time at MSU—West Plains, Gettys considered a few different areas within healthcare, including nursing, but nothing seemed to be her perfect career.
Amanda Cook, Gettys’s high school biology/chemistry teacher, and currently a pharmacist at Forbes Pharmacy in Houston, encouraged her to consider going into pharmacy.
Gettys took Cook’s advice and attended the University of Missouri to finish her pre-requisites for pharmacy school and to be close to her middle school sweetheart, Jeff Gettys. While at MU, Gettys worked in the outpatient pharmacy in the university hospital.
Gettys then attended the University of Missouri—Kansas City, Columbia Campus to earn her doctorate of pharmacy degree. After completing school, Gettys moved to Springfield to complete a pharmacy practice residency at Cox.
A year and a half of residency, and another year and a half of full-time employment with Cox later, Gettys decided it was time for a change.
“I felt a strong pull to come to my hometown and give back to the community that raised me,” said Gettys. Once a position opened up at TCMH, Gettys applied and accepted the job at TCMH.
“I’m very excited to be able to work in the community that I know and love,” Gettys explained.
Gettys had a lot of experience in both retail and hospital pharmacy, and ultimately loves the hospital setting more.
“In a hospital setting, I get to focus more on patient care than I did in a retail setting,” Gettys said. She explained that in a retail setting, a lot of her time was taken up with dealing with insurance and less with the patient, which she really enjoys.
“We are very blessed to have Jessica and her family back in the community and working at TCMH,” Wes Murray, TCMH chief executive officer said. He added, “Her skill set with have a direct impact on the care we give our patients. She will be able to help educate our patients about medication and medication use in a way that will make it easy for patients to understand and take care of themselves once they leave here.”
Gettys and her husband Jeff have been married for a little over three years and have a one-year old named Genevieve and a baby boy due in December.
In her free time, Gettys likes to travel to craft shows with her mother-in-law and her grandmother-in-law.