November 18, 2019

What it's Like to be an EveryStep Home Care Aide: Kimberly Key

Kimberly Key has always had a respect for those who need help. So it comes as no surprise that she would seek a career as an aide in the healthcare field. 

In fact, Kimberly began caring for others in high school when she began working as an in-home health care aide. 

After graduation, she changed gears slightly and became a massage therapist. Ten years later, she was ready for a change. 

"I really liked it, but I wanted to do more," she recalls, adding that she spent the next five years she worked as a private home care provider. 

That patient, she recalls, was a young man who had been in a farming accident that left him blind and wheelchair-bound. 

"When that job ended, I worked in an assisted living home," she says. "I loved it there because it was like getting extra grandparents." 

While she hadn't planned to leave the assisted living home, after her grandparents passed away she decided to move closer to her mother in Des Moines. 

"Moving here I knew I wanted to do something along the lines of what I did in the assisted living home and so picked a job where I could do that and that also forced me to get out and find my way around my new home," Kimberly says. 

When the health provider she was initially working for decided to no longer do home care, Kimberly found EveryStep. 

"When I got the job I brought some of my patients with me," she says, noting that she's cared for one veteran for nearly six years. 

"One day he summed up how I feel about my job with just one statement," Kimberly recalls. "He looked at me and told me, 'I feel like you do what you do as an act of love.' It's true, I love my job and I love the fact that I can bring joy to common's day." 

Each time Kimberly goes to a patient's home, she tries to treat them with the care and respect that she would want someone to give her loved ones.

"I'm very proud to work at EveryStep," she says. "It gives me a sense of accomplishment to give quality care to others."  

"At EveryStep our patients are not just a number, we care for each patient and their individual needs," Kimberly says. "I work with an amazing group of people."