Two Nurses, One Bold Second Act: Founding a Nonprofit Hospice | Beyond Hospice co-founders, Kerry Keenan & Jill Schoenecker, Ep. 27

Kerry Keenan and Jill Schoenecker built their nursing careers around hospice care — right up until their health system sold the program to a for-profit company. They had two options: stay and keep doing work that no longer felt like theirs, or walk away. Between them, they'd tried a version of each, and neither stuck. Then a colleague said it out loud: “You can start your own business. How hard could it be?” So they did — sketching out a third option from scratch on a whiteboard in Jill's living room, built around one guiding idea from day one: “we don't want to be the biggest, we want to be the best.” For any woman in her 40s or 50s facing a career change that doesn't sit right anymore, this episode shows there's a path beyond staying or walking away. About the Guests Kerry Keenan and Jill Schoenecker are the co-founders of Beyond Hospice, a nonprofit hospice program and division of Episcopal Homes, serving the greater Twin Cities area in Minnesota through both community-based hospice care and The Pillars, its residential hospice home. Kerry Keenan, RN, MA, is co-founder and Executive Director of Beyond Hospice. Her nursing career spans 31 years, 25 of them in hospice care, including 12 years in academia as faculty and director at Century College. Kerry has presented locally and nationally, served as a surveyor for NLNAC, and currently serves on the Practice and Standards Committee for MNHPC and as a consultant for the Minnesota State Board of Nursing. She began her career as a nursing assistant before earning her LPN, ADN, and BSN from the College of St. Catherine's, and later her MA in nursing education from Bethel University. Jill Schoenecker, RN, BSN, PHN, BA, certified CHAP leader, is co-founder and Director of Clinical Operations at Beyond Hospice. She brings over 20 years of nursing experience to the role, having started her career in acute care before transitioning to hospice, where she's spent the past four years in nursing leadership. Jill holds a BA in sociology, with a minor in psychology, from the University of Minnesota, and a BSN from St. Catherine University. Outside the clinical side, she's dedicated countless hours to community service through Dorothy Day Center, Open Arms, People Serving People, and Sharing and Caring Hands. What You Will Learn [05:48] How a living room meeting — a whiteboard, five colleagues, and a shared frustration — became the starting point for Beyond Hospice [10:44] Why they partnered with Episcopal Homes instead of going fully independent, and what a bank actually asked for as collateral on a million-dollar loan [11:24] How Beyond Hospice stepped in to save The Pillars, a residential hospice home, from closing for good [26:37] The moment a colleague's off-hand comment turned frustration into an actual plan to start their own hospice program [39:53] The industry rating system that measures whether a hospice program is actually delivering quality care — and how Beyond Hospice scored on it [46:52] The financial reality that surprised them most: why it took over a year to receive their first Medicare reimbursement payment [50:17] What's next for Beyond Hospice as the program continues to grow Guest Links Website: www.beyondhospicemn.org Connect with Sponsor: Aion Weighted vests — code MOLLY10 for 10% off, stackable, HSA/FSA eligible. Website: https://www.aiongear.com/collections/mens-and-womens-workout-vest Connect with HIR Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/herintentionalreset.co/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61587329908947 Website: https://www.herintentionalreset.com If HIR has been valuable to you, you can support the show here: https://ko-fi.com/herintentionalreset No pressure — just making it easy for listeners who want to say so. Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/hemlock/the-way-forward License code: RVGOVVHKDJFBKVJC This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase through my link, I may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you. I only recommend books and resources discussed on the show that I genuinely use and believe in. About the Show: Her Intentional Reset is a midlife podcast for women navigating career change — honest, deep-dive conversations about career pivots, second acts, and reinvention with women who've actually lived it. This women's empowerment podcast speaks to women in 30's, 40, women over 50, Gen X women, working moms, empty nesters, and corporate women dealing with burnout — women redefining success and finding their why after a layoff, a career wall, or the moment work just stopped feeling right. Each episode traces a real transition story: the catalyst for change behind it, whether that's a layoff story, career burnout, or hitting a wall; the steps and timeline behind how she actually made the change — quitting a corporate job, leaving corporate America, starting over professionally, and/or going from employee to entrepreneur; and an inside look at her industry along the way. The conversations also get into the practical side most career-change content skips: transferable skills, upskilling and reskilling in midlife, starting a business with no experience, and career change without a degree. And because money is always part of the story, guests talk financial planning for a career change — paying yourself first, building a financial runway and safety net, income gaps, self-employed health insurance, saving for retirement while self-employed, and the money mindset it takes to trade a paycheck for financial freedom in midlife. Guests share the career pivot lessons learned, the advice for career changers, and what they wish they'd known before quitting — then close out with a Rapid Round covering the real-life stuff: family recipes, book and show recommendations, a life motto, and a wellness or self-care tip for midlife women, because women are often each other's best guides and teachers. It's never too late to make a change, follow your intuition, and listen to that quiet voice — every episode leaves listeners feeling inspired and empowered to explore their own career pivot, second act, or next chapter, on their own terms. New episodes of this career change podcast and midlife podcast for women release biweekly on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.