Alumni

Schmidt ’83 Works to Reduce Infant Mortality

A College of Nursing professor is helping evaluate a new initiative with HealthVisions Midwest to reduce infant mortality in Lake County Indiana’s Hispanic community.

Students Haley Losinski, right, and Eva Venegas rehearse for their prenatal teaching presentations.

Nola Schmidt ’83, associate professor of nursing, will monitor and evaluate the progress of the initiative over the next five years. Schmidt also helped HealthVisions, a faith-based community health organization, prepare an application for a five-year, $2 million grant that it received from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The grant supports prenatal care coordination, collaboration among social service providers, and bilingual services.

Schmidt teaches an annual class on prenatal care coordination and has had groups of students present prenatal education courses through HealthVisions.

“It’s a nice opportunity for students to demonstrate cultural sensitivity in their nursing care as well as provide a much-needed service to the Hispanic community,” Schmidt said.

As part of the program, expectant mothers are encouraged to create a diary for keeping track of important information during their pregnancies. The information then can be translated from Spanish to English and relayed to their health care professionals.

“We are very excited about the potential of the diary and of making some effective changes,” Schmidt said.