One particular exchange with a patient has stuck with me. She said to me, “Mary, I’m so glad you’re here today. I was looking forward to coming today because I knew you would be here.” 

That stopped me in my tracks, and I almost cried. I couldn’t believe that someone getting chemo could be excited about coming in. 

Then it hit me—the impact that volunteers have. I guess our big smiles and happy personalities do make a difference. It feels good to make patients’ lives easier and lift their spirits up, at least for an hour or two. 

That all happened very, very quickly. It couldn't have happened faster. When the call was put out that we had a truly emergent situation for a patient, everyone did what was necessary. And the patient survived. 

The next generation of health care workers is here. And it's a family of health care workers. Everyone takes their role in the delivery of health care to heart. Not only the physicians, but the nurses and support staff as well. 

We're seeing growth in all services that we provide to the community. With the influx of School of Medicine staff, our clinical research arm has opened up. Just last year we started an ECMO respiratory program, which in the middle of the pandemic has been extremely beneficial to the community.

I'm into my twenty-first year of practice and joining Stanford Health Care – ValleyCare has really been a resurgence for me. It’s a breath of fresh air for my career. 

I went through all of his medications, straightened them out, and wrote it all down for him. It made me feel better. I felt like I went above and beyond for him.

In another situation, I was speaking as part of the “My Heart’s Content” lecture series. One of my patients was in the audience. I'm looking at her legs and can see she's got a lot of swelling, a lot of fluid retention. 

When I finished the lecture, I went and talked to her. She lives alone and didn't have a ride to get to the doctor. We called her doctor, got her an appointment, and I drove her to his office. 

She did end up getting admitted to the hospital, and we got her moved into an assisted living facility because she really wasn't safe at home alone. That was going a little above and beyond too, but well worth it. 

I love what I do. I love the people that I work with. I love my patients.

I’m proud of so many things we’ve accomplished, in particular our response to a critical nursing shortage in 2000. Our community really came together to solve the problem.

Using grants and donations, we built a facility to serve as an extended campus to Chabot College’s nursing program. At one point, Chabot doubled the number of nursing students they could admit because of our space here. Some of our nurses were part-time faculty. The partnership lasted 11 years until we trained enough nurses to meet the community’s needs.

Since becoming part of Stanford Health Care, we’ve been able to improve patient care. We now have a top-notch electronic charting system and access to advanced education. It’s exciting to see the future changes that are planned so we can continue to best serve our community. 

I tried everything to transfer this poor kid. I asked for help throughout Northern California, but everyone was busy. There was no room. After three weeks, we finally found a bed.

Today, patients would never wait that long because we function as a wing of the main Stanford Health Care campus. If we cannot locally manage care, we have first priority in moving patients to Palo Alto. The integration between us is almost seamless.

The community can see our transformation. The feedback I get from my patients is that we are always improving. We have new equipment, new technology. We have more specialists locally.

I want the community to know we are here for them. We are ramping up higher and higher. I want to see this place become the best academic and community hospital in the country. 

Because we’re a smaller community, word gets around. Members of this family were patients of the dentist where my sister-in-law worked. They were talking to her about this nurse that was taking care of their loved one. 

She said, “My sister-in-law works at ValleyCare.” They asked, “What's her name?” She said, “Barbara Murphy.” That’s when they went, “Yes, that's the nurse!”

That was my medicine, to comfort my patients. I would sit at their bedside when they were frightened or confused. I would just hold their hand. Human touch is important. Just providing them with compassion and love and, you know, TLC. 

Having the opportunity to use cancer genetics, to prevent cancer and prevent patients from having to come see me later is so gratifying. Receiving an early diagnosis and proceeding with treatment can be lifesaving. 

We offer the latest treatments here but also psychological support, financial information, social resources, and more. We are not just providing care; we are caring for the whole person.

ValleyCare has been all along and continues to be a strong, shining beacon of hope, of loving care close to home. One of the many miracles of this place is that healing occurs on a daily basis. 

Our merger with Stanford Health Care gave us access to telemedicine and around-the-clock neurologists. Others shared this dream, and we worked together to launch the primary stroke center in Pleasanton in 2019.  

The community donated money for equipment and staff training.

My role was to assemble a stroke committee, develop policies, and educate staff. Keeping the enthusiasm wasn't hard because everybody really wanted to become a primary stroke center.

Now a stroke-trained neurologist is always available to evaluate patients virtually. He or she can quickly decide whether the patient is a candidate for medication or needs to be transported to Stanford Hospital for higher interventions. It’s a comfort to know they’re there.

One of my future goals is to educate the community. People should call 911 and come to the hospital as soon as they think they might be having a stroke.