The Inner Circle acknowledges Mary J. Aloia-Dombrowski as a Pinnacle Professional Lifetime Member

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Apr 29, 2024, 14:30 ET

PLAINFIELD, N.J., April 29, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Prominently featured in The Inner Circle, Mary J. Aloia-Dombrowski is acknowledged as a Pinnacle Professional Lifetime Member for her contributions to Hospice Social Work.

Ms. Aloia-Dombrowski is a highly respected hospice social worker currently working at Hackensack Meridian Health Hospice. She is known for her expertise in End-of-Life Support and System Management and notes that she provides education, and support for people who are terminally ill. She also works with the families of the terminally ill, helping them understand the dying process, end-of-life nutrition norms, and code status facts.

Ms. Aloia-Dombrowski prepared for her illustrious career at Stockton University where she received a Bachelor of Arts in Social Work in 1986 and a Master's degree in Social Work from Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey in 1988. With more than 35 years in the healthcare field, Ms. Aloia-Dombrowski was an Oncology Social Worker for 20 years at Muhlenberg Regional Medical Center and has spent the last 15 years in the hospice field, working first at the JFK Hospital Palliative Care Program then transitioning to Hackensack Meridian Health Hospice doing intake and general in-patient level of hospice care. She serves the areas of Middlesex, Somerset, and Union Counties in New Jersey.

The healthcare provider has made a significant impact during her career and has been recognized with many accolades and awards, including Social Worker of the Year from The American Cancer Society, Union County Unit 1997; Union County Rotary Club Social Worker of the Year in 1996; Employee of the Month in 2010 for JFK Medical Center; and Health Care Hero in 2022 at Hackensack Meridian Health Network. She is affiliated with the National Association of Social Workers and received a certificate of Gerontology in 1986. She believes a most significant career accomplishment was when she was appointed the Interim Oncology Program Coordinator at MRMC in 2004.

Reflecting on her education and career, Ms. Aloia-Dombrowski acknowledges her mentors for her success who include Nancy Lukas LCSW (Social Work Manager for Hospice), Dr. Charles Leff (Oncologist), Dr. Daniel Rosenblatt (Critical Care Intensivist), and St. Bernadette Soubirous of Lourdes, France. She enjoys reading the Journal of Social Work, Clinical Social Work Journal, and American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. Looking to the future, the social worker plans to continue her role as a hospice intake social worker and would like to participate in more community education programs around hospice and palliative care as well as educating the general public on the benefits of having a POLST Form when you are 75 years of age and older. Her extraordinary career can be attributed to following her philosophy that "It is as important how you leave this world as when you entered this world. Try to leave it better than how you found it. The most important days of your life are the day you were born and the day you figure out why."

Aside from her professional and community pursuits, Ms. Aloia-Dombrowski enjoys biking with her friends every weekend, hiking, golf, and volunteering for "Home for Good" dog adoption program. Her favorite place to travel is "anywhere that I haven't been yet. Since working for Hospice, the patients have taught me to begin working on my bucket list while young and healthy. I've been working on it for the past five years. The next Viking River Cruise I would like to do is down the Nile River in Egypt." The healthcare provider has two adult daughters, Tara and Lea; three very supportive siblings, Paul, John, and Kathleen; and Aunt Maureen, who has become her surrogate mother since the death of her parents.