September 10, 2024

EveryStep's Longest-Serving Staff Member Made a Career of Caring

Dana McCarthy

Social worker Dana McCarthy is marking her 35th anniversary with EveryStep Hospice this week. More than three decades with Iowa’s oldest and largest nonprofit, community-based hospice provider makes Dana EveryStep’s longest-serving staff member.

Dana began her career at Iowa Methodist Hospital in Des Moines working with children with behavioral disorders. With a shift from 3 to 11 p.m., Dana began looking for a position with more daytime hours after she got married and started a family.

EveryStep (then known as Hospice of Central Iowa) had a job opening and she applied.

“Both my parents had received hospice care, so I knew what hospice was — back in 1989, a lot of people weren’t aware of hospice or its benefits,” says Dana, who was hired full-time, dividing her time between social work and bereavement counseling. “I really enjoyed it. Every day was different. It felt good at the end of the day that you had accomplished something — that you would walk this journey with them through their illness and end of life, helping them to cope better, providing them with education and community resources.”

Though Dana loved her job, she admits she had a lot to learn about boundaries and taking care of herself, as well as her patients. One of her first hospice patients was a young mother. “She had three young kids and that about broke me. I had to decide to find some better coping skills. I figured out how to still be close to people, but not take it home with me. It’s not that you don't still get close to people, but it's not so emotionally close that it just drains you.”

Finding coping mechanisms to deal with death daily doesn’t mean Dana forgets her patients after they pass away. Some of Dana’s memories include:

  • “My very first patient was an alcoholic, and I thought, 'Oh my gosh — this is going to be way over my head.’ But we walked that journey together and I remember him and his wife very well. His wife became a volunteer with EveryStep.”
  • “We had a young patient with Down’s syndrome who loved Donald Duck and could do an impression of him. We were able to put a wish together for him and his family to go to Disney World. They took pictures with Donald Duck. It was really cool —it just warmed your heart when they got home and I saw the pictures.”
  • “There’s another young gentleman that really wanted to die at home. The paramedics were called to the house at one point and as they were lifting him off the bed to take him to the hospital, he took his last breath and they laid him down, and he died. He did get to die in his home. And I remember we were with him. It was just a very special moment.”
  • “We had a patient that was a big Packers fan, and his family wanted him to go out of the house in his Packers attire. So, we got his shirt on, his pants on, his blanket on, and to me, that's cool — just to give you that dignity and respect that you deserve.”

Thirty-five years of caring for EveryStep Hospice patients has brought a lot of changes, but Dana’s passion for her work has only grown. “It feels like a true honor to be in that sacred moment with a patient or to be with a family after the death, and just walk that with them for a little bit.”

EveryStep Hospice’s local hospice teams work with you and your family to create a customized plan for your care, which is covered by Medicare, Medicaid and most private insurance policies.

EveryStep Hospice has teams in Des Moines, Centerville, Mount Ayr, Mount Pleasant, Osceola and Winterset. Most hospice care is provided wherever a patient calls home, but when around-the-clock or more advanced care is needed, EveryStep’s Kavanagh House hospice home in Des Moines is available. For more information about EveryStep Hospice, click here. To find care for yourself or a loved one, click here and fill out the easy, confidential online form. An EveryStep staff member will then contact you to offer support.