The stonecutter hammers away at the rock and splits it in two after the hundredth blow, knowing that it was not the last blow of the hammer, but all the blows before that split the rock. Teresa Rommelfanger, MS ’04, PNP, with the determination of a stonecutter, challenges the disparities that block access to children’s health care.
Rommelfanger is a certified pediatric nurse practitioner (PNP) in Milwaukee’s public school system. She works in four of 15 school-based health programs under the aegis of Aurora Health Care to provide primary, acute, and preventive services to children from kindergarten to 12th grade.
“My philosophy on school-based health is not that we provide primary care to students in school,” says Rommelfanger, “but provide first-line access to children with medical and mental health concerns. … School health professionals are in a prime position to pick up on children who are in need of health care.”
Rommelfanger sees children with the common ailments—headaches, stomachaches—as well as acute care concerns, such as asthma, strep throat, and ear infections. She also acts as an advocate for children needing health care.
Recently, a student came to her muttering only three words: “I need help!” After the student shared “horrific events that led her to have thoughts of suicide,” Rommelfanger explains, the PNP enlisted the involvement of the social worker, primary care provider, and the child’s mother to get the child and her sibling into a mental health day-treatment program.
Another situation called upon Rommelfanger to act on behalf of a youngster whom she determined was suffering from depression. With this particular student, she suspected that the complaints of physical illness were masking mental distress. After discussing and probing the background of the physical ailments, Rommelfanger identified that the student was suffering from depression. She worked with the school social worker and teachers to develop a plan to keep the child in class. She advised the child’s family, who enrolled the child in a mental health day-treatment program. Rommelfanger and the social worker continued to act as the student's advocates, coordinating the care the child received in school and through the treatment program.
Although Rommelfanger’s primary responsibility is to look after the physical and mental health of children at a middle school, she also functions as leader of a management team. Along with a registered nurse and a community health worker, she administers the health programs in three other schools in the Aurora Health system.
Her clinical and leadership skills that are tapped daily are rooted in her advanced nursing education in the UW-Madison School of Nursing’s master’s program. As part of her practicum, Rommelfanger took part in the Maternal & Child Health Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and Related Disorders (MCH LEND) Program at the Waisman Center.* MCH LEND provides leadership training for graduate students to improve systems of care that promote the prevention of disabilities and ensure access to services for children with neurodevelopmental and related disabilities.
Upon completing the nine-month program, Rommelfanger was elected to head the Annual Maternal Pheylketonuria (PKU) Summer Retreat in 2003. Her charge was to provide education about diet and other preventive measures to young women with this genetic metabolic disorder. This, in turn, could help curb incidents of maternal PKU, which causes mental retardation in the baby.
Rommelfanger’s success in spearheading the program garnered her the 2004 University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities Award. It honored Rommelfanger for carrying out the Waisman Center’s mission—to help children with developmental disabilities or neurodegenerative diseases achieve a desirable life within their communities.
According to mentor Susan Heighway, RN, MS, PNP, nurse practitioner at Waisman and associate faculty with the School of Nursing, Rommelfanger did such outstanding work that she was a shoe-in for the award.
Rommelfanger, reports Heighway, was “an enthusiastic and self-directed learner who consistently used a kind, respectful, and supportive approach, developing rapport easily with children, families, clinical faculty, and her peers.” Heighway also credits the School of Nursing for equipping Rommelfanger with the clinical assessment, problem solving , and critical thinking skills she demonstrated when working with children with developmental disabilities and their families.
Laurie Hartjes, RN, MS, PNP, clinical faculty and mentor to Rommelfanger at the School of Nursing, is very proud of the work that the former master’s student is doing. “Advanced practice nurses, such as Teresa,” Hartjes notes, “are on the front lines closing the access-to-care gap for so many children and their families. “Her creative problem-solving skills and tenaciousness allow her to meet the population’s needs head-on.”
What Rommelfanger learned while on the UW-Madison campus translates well into her current environment, where her advocacy for the young underserved remains unfaltering.
Rommelfanger explains, “My role grants me a great deal of independence, but with that comes the expectation that I can … perform as a leader. My traineeship not only gave me the skills and know-how, but also the confidence to perform in that role. My experiences in graduate school and my traineeship at the Waisman Center provided me with even greater empathy to work with children and their families.”
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* The Waisman Center, located on the UW-Madison campus, is dedicated to
understanding human development, developmental disabilities, and neurodegenerative
disease through focus on research, clinical services, and training. To find
out more about the Waisman Center and the MCH LEND program, visit http://www.waisman.wisc.edu/index.html.