USU Nursing Dean Awarded for a Lifetime of Service to Others
Dr. Carol Romano, dean of the Uniformed Services University's (USU) Daniel K. Inouye Graduate School of Nursing (GSN) received the prestigious AMSUS Lifetime Achievement Award for her extraordinary contributions to medicine.
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Dr. Carol Romano, dean of the Daniel K. Inouye Graduate School of Nursing, is presented with the AMSUS Lifetime Achievement Award by USU President Dr. Jonathan Woodson (left) and Dr. John Cho, executive director of AMSUS, the Society of Federal Health Professionals, at the 2023 AMSUS Annual Meeting in National Harbor, Maryland. (Photo credit: Robbie Hammer, Defense Health Agency) |
March 30th, 2023 By Ian Neligh
For more than four decades, Dr. Carol Romano has remained inspired to the mission of helping others.
Nurse, healthcare pioneer, mentor, uniformed officer and school dean—from the very beginning of her career she has steadfastly believed in the importance of making patients’ lives meaningfully better.
Romano, dean of the Uniformed Services University’s (USU) Daniel K. Inouye Graduate School of Nursing (GSN), was selected as this year’s recipient of the prestigious Association of Military Surgeons of the United States (AMSUS) Lifetime Achievement Award for her extraordinary contributions to medicine. The award recognized Romano for her leadership and lasting contributions to the military, federal health care, science, and the nation. The AMSUS Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Romano in February.
“There are so many professionals in the different disciplines who make comparable contributions, so to me the award was very humbling,” says Romano. “You don’t achieve these things in life by yourself. You only achieve them if there are support systems, both personal and professional, and mentors who help to correct your mistakes and guide you along the way.”
No Second Thoughts
Originally from Hazleton, Penn., Romano says growing up she initially wasn’t sure what to do for a career, but options for women at that time were viewed as limited.
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The AMSUS Lifetime Achievement Award recognized Dr. Carol Romano for her leadership and lasting contributions to the military, federal health care, science, and the nation. (Photo credit: Tom Balfour, USU) |
“I loved it from the very beginning,” Romano says. “I loved the learning, I loved the patient care, and I just felt this is what I was meant to do. So I never had second thoughts. Never.”
She graduated from the Geisinger Medical Center with a nursing diploma and was recruited to work for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical Center.
“It was always my desire to get an academic degree,” Romano says. “I was from a socio-economically depressed geographic area in northern Pennsylvania, and couldn’t afford college. So my plan was always to get my nursing license, and then work while I earned my college degree part time. I was fortunate that NIH reimbursed my college tuition while I worked full time.”
With multiple roles and lots of opportunities, she stayed with the organization and finished her undergraduate, master’s and doctoral degrees.
“I worked with patients in oncology, cardiology, intensive care and post-op open-heart surgery,” Romano says. “I always loved learning and when you’re in healthcare, you become aware of how much you need to continue to learn and grow to stay current.”
Something New
Romano says she was fortunate that in the early 1970s, NIH was looking to implement a new electronic health records system — among the first of its kind in the country. As a senior nurse, she was asked to join that effort. The move ultimately had a massive impact on her career as she entered the field of informatics.
“I was on the initial team that designed and developed not only the electronic record but a nursing component to the record. One of my responsibilities was to develop the education program for all the providers, and to implement and support physicians, nurses and other health professionals with converting from paper to an electronic system…,” Romano says. “We were kind of on the edge of that Information Age explosion in healthcare.”
In 1976, her pioneering work in nursing informatics led her to help design and implement one of the first computerized medical information systems. Consequently, she became the co-architect of the world’s first graduate curriculum in nursing informatics at the University of the Maryland School of Nursing. The shift and informatics expertise ultimately led her to teach at the University of Maryland in the undergraduate and graduate nursing programs in Baltimore for almost 20 years part time, while still working full time at the NIH Clinical Research Center.
I felt that from the very beginning of my career I was doing something meaningful, affecting peoples' lives in a positive way and making a small contribution to our nation's health.
― Dr. Carol Romano, Dean of the Uniformed Services University's Daniel K. Inouye Graduate School of Nursing
She was also able to guide the national board certification in nursing informatics with the American Nurses Credentialing Center and chair several national conferences in this area at NIH, publish papers and do consulting in the U.S. and abroad. Romano worked as a federal civilian for 15 years before she joined the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS) as a commissioned nurse officer.
She worked in a variety of leadership positions as a clinical educator, a nursing information specialist, director of Quality Improvement, deputy Chief Information Officer and senior advisor in Clinical Research Informatics.
As a PHS commissioned officer, Romano went on several deployments, including one during Hurricane Katrina in 2005 when she set up an inaugural federal health professional volunteer process that allowed for more than 1,300 deployed federalized, volunteer health care professionals to assist in that public health emergency .
“The Public Health Service mission is to protect, promote and advance the health and safety of the nation,” she says. “Commissioned officers had the secondary role and responsibility to respond to public health emergencies like pandemics or hurricanes, so there is a deployment aspect to serve the bigger mission.”
Romano became the chief nurse of the PHS, acting chief of staff for the surgeon general of the United States, and for a short time, deputy surgeon general before retiring at the rank of rear admiral in 2010. Romano says she’s tremendously proud of her time as a commissioned PHS officer and the contributions she made.
That same year, she was selected to be the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at USU’s Graduate School of Nursing and in 2015 became the dean of the GSN. Since becoming dean, Romano has increased the school’s standing to among the top five percent in the country and the CRNA program to the top four.
“I’m proud to be a part of the Graduate School of Nursing’s mission of creating the next generation of military advanced practice nurses, scholars, and leaders,” Romano says. “Influencing the next generation of nurses is an important way to leave one’s mark on society. This part in my career, I think, is just humbling, and it is why I am not ready to retire again. I’m still inspired by the USU mission.”
In addition to being awarded the AMSUS Lifetime Achievement Award, Romano has received a host of other accolades including the Surgeon General’s Medallion and Exemplary Service Award, the Order of Military Medical Merit Award, and was named among the World’s Who’s Who of Women and Who’s Who in American Nursing and recipient of the University of Maryland Illustrious Alumni and Visionary Pioneer awards.
“As faculty and administrators at a university, we have the opportunity to guide people along their way to create the next lifetime achievement award winners,” Romano says.
She recalls while teaching nursing to graduate students at the University of Maryland, many students came from other career fields and were looking for something more meaningful.
“These second degree students who were seeking nursing as a second career included a police officer, lobbyist, lawyer, and biologist and they all says after almost 10 years in their own field they wanted to do something that was more meaningful and of service,” Romano says. “That always stuck with me because I felt that, from the very beginning of my career, I was doing something meaningful, affecting people’s lives in a positive way and making a small contribution to our nation’s health.”
