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At the end of every shift, Betty Phillips, RN, walks down the steps of the Towers Building and says, “Goodbye, UVA.” Arriving home, she opens her front door and announces, “Welcome home, Betty!” This has been her ritual every day since she started as a nurse at UVA Health almost 65 years ago.

No matter how busy her day is at work — then caring for patients with tuberculosis and now, the pandemic — being able to separate work and home keeps Betty grounded and gives her strength through the toughest times.

Betty is no stranger to hardship. Her parents divorced before she can remember, and soon after, her mother was diagnosed with cancer and died when Betty was just three years old. She moved from Washington, DC, to Charlottesville, to live with her uncle and aunt.

Inspired by Tragedy

Betty found solace and purpose on her grandmother’s farm in Greene County. Her grandmother had a special knack for making mustard plasters, which to this day are considered a home remedy for coughs, congestion, aches and pain. “The local physician, Dr. Foster, would frequently come to my grandmother and say, ‘Mrs. Dickerson, I have done everything I can for this patient. It’s now in your hands and in God’s,’” Betty remembers.

“What are you doing?” little Betty would ask as her grandmother prepared the mustard mixture. “I’m trying really hard to save people’s lives and make them well,” her grandmother would reply.

Betty paid close attention as her grandmother covered the mustard mixture with rags, so she could apply the same technique to the only doll she owned. In the wrapping and saving of her “baby” day in and day out, nurse Betty was born.

From Baby Dolls to “Big People”

From age 4, Betty told everyone she was going to be a nurse and “save big people,” like her grandmother. Never wavering from her plan, Betty graduated with honors in 1956 from the School of Nursing at Blue Ridge Sanatorium (BRS). After years working between UVA and BRS, Betty continued her education at Piedmont Virginia Community College.

By then, Betty was married to her high school sweetheart and best friend, Bill, with whom she shares two sons, and a daughter. “I was lucky to have an excellent partner who knew how much I loved studying and being on top of things at work, so he supported me in going back to school.” Every midterm, she would ask Bill to take the kids for the weekend and would sleep at the sanatorium until she knew everything on the test. “I just wanted to be the best nurse I could possibly be,” Betty explains. She graduated Cum Laude in 1975 with an Associate’s Degree in Nursing, and would later go on to earn her BSN from UVA in 1986.

Nursing Through the Years

At the beginning of Betty’s career, nursing looked very different. With fewer medications and less equipment, nurses took on a more hands-on role — rubbing backs, changing sheets, mixing medications. Patients stayed in the hospital far longer than they do now, so nurses got to know their patients well.

But one thing that hasn’t changed is Betty’s desire to help her colleagues succeed and advance. Whether making sure patient care assistants are recognized on the units, working nightshifts for fellow nurses, or grabbing lunch for her physician partner because “he looked hungry”, Betty is always looking out for others. “If I see people struggling and I know can help them, I do,” she explains. “I believe we should help make other people’s lives as good as we possibly can.”

“A Shining Star”

Betty retired in 1996, but returned to UVA in 1998 after missing her patients, her colleagues and, as she says, “using my brain.” She has worked part-time in the Plastic Surgery Clinic ever since.

“Betty Phillips is one of those lucky people who found what they were put on earth to do — take care of people. It is clearly part of her soul and who she is,” gushes pediatric plastic surgeon Jonathan Black, MD. “Her experience is second to none, as she often knows what the patients need surgically before I see them. Betty is a shining star that has burned brightly at UVA for almost 65 years.”

Betty knows that she may some day have to retire for good, but in the meantime, she keeps herself active by working, exercising every morning, and walking in the evenings. Above all, she stays grateful: For the uncle and aunt who adopted her; for the 62 years she had with Bill before he died in 2019; for her two sons, one daughter, six grandchildren and one great-granddaughter; for a job she has loved for a lifetime.

“I am indeed grateful for all my years at UVA. They are everything I wished for when I was a little girl. That and the perfect guy made life wonderful for me.”

Betty's tips for finding balance:

• Separate work and home
• Find a good partner
• Be a good partner
• Commit to self care (Betty's personal favorites: 30-minute soaking bath at night and 15 minutes alone time every day to sit quietly, drink a glass of water, and read a devotion)
• Practice gratitude
• Enjoy life!