Some nursing origins begin with stories of natural caregivers who knew exactly what they wanted to do at a very young age. This was not the case for St. John’s Home Director of Nursing Natasha Jackson, at least not initially.
“I did come from a family of nurses,” she explains. “But that was not my track. I was in school for business administration.”
Jackson went to Monroe Community College for business administration, and after her mother suffered from a severe health issue, she shifted her focus to include a study in health care.
“I stand on the shoulders of many nurses who came before me.”
“The home care nurses that helped my mom taught me how to change the bandages for her,” says Jackson. As the oldest child, Jackson describes how she was “the one to take my mom and do her bandages for her and treatments when the nurse was not there.”
One nurse noticed Jackson’s skill and precision while tending to her mom’s needs. She remembers the nurse asking, “Hey, have you ever thought about nursing?”
“I told her that ‘my grandmother is a nurse—she wears all white with hats and stockings, and she goes to the psych center. I think my aunt is a nurse or a nurse’s aide also, but no, I am a business major.’”
“They said, ‘No, you’re a nurse. It takes a different kind of person to do this.'”
After earning her associate’s degree, Jackson went to SUNY Brockport. She tried to balance her studies between business administration and health care, but in the end, her mentors, experience, and love for nursing won out. Jackson earned her Bachelor of Science in Nursing Administration in 2015 and continued what she calls her “scrub life.”
Jackson’s credentials and experience in senior care span back to 1996. Her past roles include leading health care services at an area home care agency and holding two assistant directors of nursing positions at local nursing homes. She comes to St. John’s Home from Park Ridge Living Center, where she was the director of nursing. Jackson earned her Master of Science in Nursing Leadership and Administration from SUNY Empire in 2019. She is certified for wound care and patient review instruments (PRI) and screening.
Jackson points out that with each career opportunity and educational endeavor, she has been able to grow while “keeping those connections” to professionals throughout the Rochester community. These mentors have provided Jackson with valuable guidance and support as she has built her nursing career in long-term care.
“I want people to stop seeing nursing homes as an afterthought,” says Jackson. She says that working in a nursing home allows “nurses the ability to grow faster because the residents (can be) more complex than on a hospital floor.”
“St. John’s is at a crossroads,” says Jackson, “and we have so much potential.”
Jackson is enthusiastic about the future of St. John’s Home and the opportunities there are for those at any stage of their nursing journey. “I want to empower new nurses and bring life back into nursing — one nurse and one CNA at a time,” says Jackson. She wants to create a strong and supportive environment where nurses and CNAs are mentored, but are also welcomed into the “decision-making process as a community.”
“They are in the trenches and deserve to be heard,” says Jackson.
With her current role at St. John’s, Jackson wants to revitalize the educational programs offered to nurses and nursing students — to restructure St. John’s Home as a “learning facility.”
“We want ambitious people, people who question how things are done and think outside of the box,” she says. “Great succession plans encourage learning, and nurses that come here can expect to grow.”
“A nursing department that recruits (also) grows, mentors, and retains a high caliber of nurses and CNAs.”
Jackson’s excitement and her focus on St. John’s untapped potential to be a true learning facility is contagious. “St. John’s already has weekend contracts for nurses,” she says, “but I want to tailor it around students who are in school, so they can work on weekends, get a paycheck and experience.”
Implementing weekend contracts for nursing students with built-in study time and other planned initiatives demonstrates how aligned Jackson is with St. John’s mission of being a flexible and welcoming employer of choice for the nurses in the Rochester area.
“My goals are to always positively engage, educate, inspire, and motivate,” says Jackson.
Jackson’s positive energy can be reflected in her personal life as well. “Just being with family,” says Jackson, is her preferred way to spend free time. She likes to surround herself with her daughters, husband, and friends. They have biweekly game nights with good food and company. Jackson says that she and her family like to travel at least once a year. According to Jackson, in a “perfect world,” she would live someplace warm all year long, like St. Thomas, while continuing the work she loves. For now, Jackson will endure the colder weather and seasonally gray skies of Upstate New York — her primary focus is building a strong and supportive nursing department at St. John’s.