Most professors will have made their way back to campus come fall but not Patricia Schnitzer, associate professor at the Sinclair School of Nursing. Schnitzer will travel to Hyattsville, Md., for the 2013 National Center for Health Statistics/Academy Health Policy Fellowship.
“It’s a very exciting opportunity for me,” Schnitzer said. “When I found out about the award, I was very happy. The fellowship is a real honor, and it’s an opportunity for me to conduct research that I think is important.”
Only one or two fellows are chosen for the 13-month intensive, full-time research program each year. In order to apply for the fellowship, Schnitzer had to write a 10-page proposal for the research project she would pursue using the NCHS databases.
“(Schnitzer) was chosen based on her extensive work experience, her potential to add to an important and timely body of research and her wonderful personality,” NCHS Survey Statistician Christine Lucas said. “We feel confident that she will work well with everyone she meets.”
Beginning Sept. 1, Schnitzer will begin research for her project, “Improving National Data on Child Maltreatment Fatalities,” at the NCHS headquarters. Child maltreatment includes child abuse and neglect.
“The issue is that there is a national undercount of child maltreatment deaths,” she said. “We don’t have a good system for identifying fatal child maltreatment at the national level.”
Schnitzer hopes to develop a more effective procedure for identifying child maltreatment. By using NCHS databases, she will have access to death certificate information that is not publicly available. The death certificates that she will study contain details about the circumstances in which the fatalities occurred.
“The goal of my project is to develop a strategy that better estimates child maltreatment deaths through information on death certificates,” Schnitzer said. “My project might not be the answer, but it will move us closer to a better strategy for doing this.”
During the fellowship, Schnitzer will have the opportunity to work with other health professionals, in addition to law enforcement and Child Protection Services personnel. They will collaborate to study individual circumstances involved in child fatalities to develop a more applicable and thorough definition of child maltreatment. She will then use this definition to identify and count the number of fatalities due to maltreatment in children ages five and younger.
“I would like to see in my lifetime — and I want my research to contribute to — the acceptance of child maltreatment as a public health issue and not just a child welfare issue,” Schnitzer said.
Schnitzer’s medical background and research are concentrated in epidemiology, which is the study of patterns, causes, and effects of health and disease conditions in particular populations.
“I started out as a nurse in the emergency department,” Schnitzer said. “And I saw individuals suffer from injuries. So then, I thought that maybe my work might have more impact in public health, which focuses on populations and prevention rather than individual injuries.”
“(Schnitzer) has special expertise in epidemiology,” SSON Dean Judith Fitzgerald Miller said. “And with her research and track record in early childhood injuries, the fellowship is a particularly good fit.”
Schnitzer is excited for the opportunity to gain instruction in health policy and complete a project with relevance to her field. However, she acknowledges that her project will require a great deal of work.
“If it was easy to do,” Schnitzer said. “Someone would have done it by now.”
