PHNAC Awards Committee
Rita Beam
Stephanie Stark
Carol McDonald
Lillian Wald Award
Awarded to a public health nurse who demonstrates leadership skills among peers and community, has practiced a minimum of five years, is creative, resourceful and innovative in addressing public health concerns in the community, is caring in relationships with colleagues and clients, initiates, implements and evaluates public health interventions that focus on health promotion and disease prevention, shares public health knowledge with colleagues and the community and is a member of PHNAC and CPHA.
The recipient of this award is…
Christine Schmidt
Jefferson County Public Health
Like Lillian Wald, Christine advocates for public health nurses, safe communities, and health care for the underinsured. Christine has been a public health nurse for over 30 years with the last 14 years as a Public Health Nurse Supervisor at Jefferson County Public Health. As a PHN Supervisor, Christine has managed the communicable disease programs, including international travel and immunization, and health care access programs. Under her leadership, she has improved the immunization rates of children, adolescents and adults in Jefferson County by implementing immunization clinics for monolingual Spanish speaking clients staffed by bilingual English / Spanish PHNs and administrative support staff; administering the ARRA funded Allied Health Student Project that immunizes students in health related educational programs and educates on immunization practice; working with child care centers to develop immunization record systems to track immunization rates; collaborating with the school district on back-to-school clinics; implementing an immunization policy for JCPH employees; serving on the CDC Childhood Influenza Vaccination Project; and collaborating with Visiting Nurses Association to have them host clinics for seniors at JCPH clinic sites. She led JCPH in its becoming a part of the state immunization registry and its transition to the CIIS II system and supports private providers as they transition into the registry. She responds to calls from other health departments for assistance with disease outbreaks and participated in numerous immunization clinics in the state in response to disease containment.
She presented at APHA, CityMatCH and Pubic Health in the Rockies on the Allied Health Student Project and her work on the Child Care Centers Health and Safety Project sharing her knowledge to educate the public health workforce on promising immunization practices. She speaks out at Colorado Nurses Association Conferences on employee immunization practices and will present at its fall 2011 conference on the benefits of health workers getting their flu vaccine. Christine has been an active member of the Colorado Children ‘s Immunization Coalition, the Immunization Technical Assistance Task Force, and the Colorado Influenza and Pneumococcal Action Coalition. She has supported legislation to implement an immunization registry, written and received numerous grants that have increased capacity in the county for immunization services, and has had articles published in the ITAT Sharp Shooter on Pertussis, Smallpox and Hepatitis.
Ten years ago, Christine took a leadership role by writing for and receiving a CHP+ Challenge grant that was used to fund a Jefferson County community meeting to identify ways to enroll more children in CHP+. As a result of this meeting, along with feedback from other public meetings addressing the needs of the medically underserved, Christine formed the Jefferson County Health Care Access Coalition. This twelve agency member coalition continues to meet bimonthly and members work together to increase health care access for county residents and to partner on grant applications. Most recently, Christine served in a leadership role on the Aging Well in Jefferson County Initiative. She presented her committee’s findings at the Jefferson County 2010 Aging Summit on “Physical, Mental Health and Well Being in the Aged Population”. Christine serves on the Colorado Nurses Association Health Care Access Committee, where she brings a public health perspective, and presents to groups on health care access issues. She recently was appointed to the CALPHO Health Care Reform Task Force.
Christine is recognized in Colorado’s public health nurse community for her work on adapting the QUAD Council PHN Competencies for PHNs working in Communicable Disease, Maternal-Child Health, and Reproductive Health Clinics at JCPH. This work was done as her Capstone project for Jefferson County’s Management in Excellence Program. Through her presentations at APHA, CPHA and CPHND meetings and a NACCHO Webinar, state public health nurse consultants, and most recently PHNPC, have used her templates to develop Colorado PHN competencies in various areas of public health nursing. Christine received PHNAC’s Most Innovative Project Award in 2007 for this project. Christine has been Treasurer of PHNAC for the past three years. Her work in this position has resulted in PHNAC obtaining 501c6 status that allows donors to receive a tax credit for donations to support PHNAC’s Scholarship Fund.
Besides sharing her knowledge of public health and public health nursing through her committee, task force and professional association work, published newsletter articles, and conference presentations, Christine serves as a Clinical Scholar for the University of Colorado Denver College of Nursing. She has been a Nightingale Nominee, Colorado Nurses Association DNA 16 Nurse of the Year, and JCPH Employee of the Month. Christine is now deserving of the Lillian Wald Public Health Nurse Award. JCPH and the Colorado Public Health Community are fortunate to have a PHN with Christine’s commitment to quality work, compassion for the underserved, and dedication to community involvement and workforce development.
