Dublin graduate Tiffany (Marsh) Villegas has been working in the healthcare industry since she was 17 years old. Now a hospice nurse, Villegas works directly with patients and their families, while also educating the community about the benefits of hospice care.
Tiffany graduated from Dublin High School in 2006, and married her high school sweetheart Hervey Villegas. Her first job was at Three Oaks Assisted Living in Dublin, where she cooked, cleaned and helped out the residents where she could. She also worked as an administrative assistant at CCS Hospice.
When her daughter was born in 2007, Tiffany took a break from working and stayed home to raise her, and the family welcomed a son two years later.
Once the kids were a little older, Tiffany went back to work, starting a new job at CCS Medical Equipment. “I was doing insurance processing,” she said. “I really liked that job a lot. I did it for a long time, and it’s pretty interesting, because I would work with people supplying medical equipment, and then some of them would eventually become my hospice patients, so I was kind of following along their journey.”
She stayed there for seven years. Once her kids were in high school, Tiffany decided to go back to school and earn her nursing degree. “I’ve always wanted to be a nurse, and I wanted to wait until my kids were independent enough that I was able to do that,” she said.
She graduated with her Associates Degree in Nursing from Ranger College in 2022 and her Bachelors of Science in Nursing in 2023 from Texas Tech.
Tiffany is currently the Assistant Director of Nurses at CCS Hospice. “Hospice is very rewarding,” she said. “I’m pretty passionate about it. I love advocating for it. I think it’s the best Medicare benefit that there is, because it’s 100 percent paid for.”
Tiffany recently started volunteering with the Dublin chapter of Meals on Wheels, and began seeing needs in Dublin that were not being met. “I’ve seen that Dublin is underserved with hospice — there’s a lot of patients that are just alone in their homes here that could be getting more assistance, but they’re not.”
In recent months, Tiffany has made it her mission to inform people in the Dublin community about the benefits hospice can provide. “It’s an outdated belief that hospice only comes in in the last one, two days of life,” she said. “That’s not really how it works anymore. Now the longer you’re on, the more the patient benefits. I strive to ensure patients have a higher quality of life with comfort and symptom management”.
She’s been visiting churches and other places people go for help to share information about hospice support. “I want to educate people on hospice, so we can reach more citizens in need,” she said. “I’m passionate about advocating, because I think it’s beneficial to have the help and assistance [that hospice offers].”
The company Tiffany works for, CCS Hospice, is a small local business with only six nurses, and has been operating in the area for nearly 40 years. Tiffany makes visits to several patients a day in their homes, assisted living facilities or nursing homes around the surrounding area.
“I’ll come in and see patients twice a week or so, and then daily as their journey progresses and they need more care ,” she said. “We help with their bathing, making sure that they’re comfortable, and anything else the family needs. Sometimes they just need to talk, and receive love and support. I’m here to help direct and support them during a difficult and overwhelming time. It’s a blessing to be able to help them in this way.”
Tiffany enjoys forming close relationships with her patients and their families. “We earn their trust and respect and they really treat us like a family member,” she said. “It’s an honor to join them in such a delicate time. I love my job and the time that I get to spend with my patients and their family.”
In the future, Tiffany hopes to earn her masters degree to further her nursing career. “I’m talking to some different programs and I’m hoping to start here pretty soon,” she said. “I just love education as well as working towards bringing evidence-basedpractice, and higher standards to rural healthcare. Like I said, we’re very underserved [in Dublin], and I believe in helping local people in receiving higher quality care.”
When Tiffany is not working, she enjoys painting and spending time with her family. She and her husband Hervey Villegas have been together since they were teenagers, and they have two children, Emma Rose, 18, and Matthew, 16. Tiffany is often out at her son’s baseball events or other extracurricular activities.
Her mother, Emma Cortez, is a longtime Dublin citizen, along with many other family members.
Throughout her adult life, Tiffany has found inspiration in her kids. “Starting at a younger age. I feel like my husband and I were pushed to be as successful as we could so that we could provide for them, and I think it has really worked out — now that they’re older, we’ve achieved many accomplishments” she said. “My husband works at Bovine Supply Line. He’s worked there since he was 18. We both have worked longterm jobs in Dublin. I was mostly inspired by my kids and being able to give them everything that I didn’t have. I wanted them to have opportunities to do whatever they would like to do.In order to do that, I really had to push myself to do the most that I could do.”
Tiffany’s advice to Dublin graduates is to focus on making goals and sticking to them. “Figure out what you want your life to look like, and then just figure out the steps that you need to take,” she said. “It means something different for everyone. I just think that everyone is capable of achieving what they want, you just have to have a plan and not quit when things get hard.”
— Where Are They Now chronicles what Dublin graduates have done since high school. If you have any suggestions for other grads, email publisher@dublincitizen. com.