20 Who Count: Dana McDaniel

By Kendra Simpson

Everyone wants to know their family members are receiving the best possible treatment when dealing with an illness as scary as cancer. Those who have had the honor of meeting Dana McDaniel knew they would receive that very treatment.

“I get to see people at their most vulnerable states which is something that I definitely don’t take lightly,” she said. “Because those people basically are at your mercy … you’re kind of their lifeline essentially.”

McDaniel is an advanced practice registered nurse for the Mosaic Life Care Cancer Care program. She has been described as “instrumental” in building the program, ensuring patients receive all necessary services for their illness, including after-treatment care such as therapy, counseling, community support and outreach.

“Everybody needs the medical component,” she said. “Whether that’s surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, but it’s a lot of the supporting ancillary services that are really, I think, impactful and make a huge difference.”

McDaniel saw firsthand the trials her father went through during his cancer treatment. She noted what work was necessary to improve the program and she acted.

“All the services that he needed,” she said. “Sometimes they weren’t there, sometimes they were. I took that into consideration with combining what I saw there and then when I saw our patients needing, just to be able to instill that into our program.”

While McDaniel now deals more with implementing new technology, she continues to meet with patients and sees the impact of her efforts.

“I feel like God’s led me through different paths, throughout my nursing career,” she said. “And He always just keeps telling me to do oncology. And there’s something about that I can’t deny.”