If you work as a nurse in Mason General Hospital, you may find that Resource Nurse Jalal Zahir, RN, is always there when you need him, right when the most critical situations are taking place. Through his role as the resource nurse, Zahir’s workstation changes hour-by-hour because he is pulled into the areas of the hospital with the most pressing need. Zahir’s positive, can-do attitude are a major reason why his peers have named him the August 2023 Employee of the Month.

Zahir started at Mason Health in 2015. He grew up in Western Washington and graduated from high school in 2005, with a desire to look into nursing. He ended up studying Biology at The Evergreen State College, but when he graduated college in 2009, he was facing student debt in the midst of the Great Recession. At that point, he decided to look back into nursing.

“I had always had an inclination that nursing would be a cool thing to do,” he said. “I already had much of the prerequisite coursework done, so I went straight into South Puget Sound Community College. I got my RN license in 2015.”

Toward the end of nursing school, Zahir completed his preceptorship at Mason General Hospital. He quickly became drawn to the small, rural hospital.

“When I was a student nurse, I had a really good experience here,” he said. “I feel like I got a lot out of it, more than from my other clinical assignments. The people who precepted me, they really took the time to answer my questions.”

What Zahir loves most about working at Mason Health are his co-workers.

“Nursing is a high burnout profession, and I appreciate that I work somewhere where the burnout factor is to a lesser degree,” he said. “By-and-large, we’re a smaller hospital, so it’s more tight-knit. People want to be involved in each other’s lives.”

Zahir lives in Olympia, where he gardens and plays guitar in his free time. He lives with his border collie, Hazel.

Mason Health, Public Hospital District No. 1 of Mason County, is celebrating 55 years of serving patients and the community this year. Mason Health is ISO 9001 Quality Management System certified by Det Norske Veritas (DNV) and is a licensed and accredited acute care hospital with a level four emergency trauma designation. Mason General Hospital and Mason Clinic are ENERGY STAR® certified and Mason Health is the recipient of three Practice Greenhealth Partner for Change Awards and a Greening the OR Environmental Excellence Award. There are more than 100 physicians on staff in 19 specialties. For more information or to find a health care provider, visit www.masongeneral.com. To learn more about DNV, visit www.dnv.com/healthcare.

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