Monica Kondrad- ReInventing her Role in Childrens Healthcare

Monica Kondrad is a nurse care coordinator who works in a primary care practice serving children with disabilities. She has been a registered nurse for 28 years and has worked primarily with children.  She started out as a staff nurse on a medical surgical floor providing acute care to hospitalized children.  She then worked in intensive care units in hospital settings and branched out to provide care to technology dependent children in their homes.  Her career in nursing evolved and she assisted in opening a pediatric hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and was a nurse manager of two hospital units.  She became a case manager and transitioned chronically ill children from the hospital to home at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.  She assisted in developing Care Coordination utilizing the Medical Home model at The Center for Children With Special Needs at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children.  She currently works with families of children with disabilities to advocate for home nursing services, appropriate classroom placements in schools and other medically necessary services.  Her public speaking includes lectures in nursing schools, conferences for professionals caring for children with disabilities and forums providing insight to families to provide education and empowerment to assist these families in navigating the health care, insurance, home care and school systems to assure that children with disabilities can meet their potential.