Meet a nurse helping change the nursing market in Mississippi

WEBSTER COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI) – Across the nation, the healthcare community is recognizing National Nurses Week, but in some areas there’s not as much to celebrate.

A WalletHub study says Mississippi is the 9th worst state for nurses and is ranked 39th in health-care facilities per capita.

That means there’s a lack of medical facilities across the state for people seeking health care.

One nurse practitioner has changed that in a town, where a health clinic was much-needed.

Hours of walking every day and treating patient after patient.

Misti Garnett has been doing it for nearly two decades.

“My grandfather was a doctor. I grew up in, you know, my father was a pharmacist, and I just grew up seeing others be taken care of and that was what I wanted to do.”

While being a wife, mother, and full-time nurse, Garnett went back to school to become a nurse practitioner.

Not long after taking on that responsibility, she took on another challenge, turning this building into the Webster Urgent Care.

The church next door offered the building to Garnett.

“Having this opportunity to finally be back in Mathiston, where my family is, and offer something to Mathiston, that they don’t have was just really something I couldn’t turn down. It was very exciting for us. It was just that next phase that I wanted to do.”

It was a clinic years ago, but at the time of the offer, it was being used for storage.

The inside went from this, to this, in less than five months.

That renovation came with endless hours of work every night, once Garnett, her husband and some of his co-workers left their day jobs.

“It takes a lot of work. It’s not just a come in and get going. There’s a lot of behind the scenes work that it takes before you can get this clinic up and running.”

Before the clinic opened its doors in December, locals were having to drive 10 to 15 minutes to the nearest clinic.

“A lot of people will tell us, you know, ‘we’re so glad y’all are here,’ and you know, ‘you’re very friendly,’ and so hopefully, people will keep coming and we will help fulfill that need,” says Webster Urgent Care office manager and nurse, Maegan Mattison.

Filling the need and providing care to the people of Mathiston, is what keeps this staff busy every day.

“The shortage of nurses in Mississippi and facilities around the area, it’s nice to be able to provide somewhere for people to go, especially local, and it’s kind of local for all of us.”

The clinic is open everyday and offers care to all ages starting at four months.

The urgent care also has an in-house lab and x-ray.