It Takes a Valley

Everyone knows that one person who seems to have it all, through it all, and a winning attitude to boot. The one that makes you ask, “How does she do it?”

At St. Luke’s Wood River Medical Center, that person is Siobhan Jameson. And when the wife, mother of twin infant girls, and operating room chief circulator nurse is quizzed on her secret, she credits St. Luke’s Wood River Foundation for the concrete under her feet and the positivity in her stride.

“My daily motivation to work hard and to the best of my ability comes down to the people I work with,” Siobhan says. “They are supportive, upbeat and all-around team players. That’s so key for me, to be a part of a team and feel like I can give back to them as much as they give to me. You can love what you do, but to love where you work and who you work with really impacts you as well.”

In her four years with St. Luke’s Wood River, Siobhan has garnered respect for her dedication and compassion from patients to peers. She says her story is an illustration of St. Luke’s Wood River Foundation’s investment in her, and her exemplary work a reflection of community generosity well invested.

Siobhan was first introduced to St. Luke’s Wood River Foundation’s many programs while in nursing school, when she benefited from the foundation’s scholarship program.

“As a student, my life’s bills were still coming in while I wasn’t working as much, so financial assistance was key,” she says.

As a staff nurse, St. Luke’s Wood River Foundation assisted in continuing education by sending Siobhan to an international conference in New Orleans for operating room nurses that exposed her to new practices and resources and reinforced the importance of certain standards. 

Perhaps nowhere did her work become more personal than when it came to the birth of her now nine-month-old twins. Being flown to Boise at 33 weeks into the pregnancy to wait out a c-section, she was not only unable to work, but adding unanticipated expenses to an already unprecedented adventure.

Thanks to the foundation’s Circle of Friends Fund and the Pat and Carol McLaughlin Endowment Fund, Siobhan was able to focus on her girls, then regroup to come back to work after.

“The St. Luke’s Wood River Foundation has helped me in many ways throughout my career and I try to give back to them where I can,” she says. “I am very thankful.”

While she admits she can’t ever turn off the “nurse” in her, she does leave the hospital and quickly go into mom mode. 

“We make the most of our time on the weekends and evenings,” Siobhan says. “When I’m on call, my husband is a huge support and is super dad. It’s all a give and take.”

Siobhan believes the experience has engendered a passionate employee in her with its halo of backup in the workplace.

“I feel loyal to this community and the St. Luke’s Wood River Foundation.”