Health care as a family affair

It’s not that they all made a pact to pursue careers in the health care profession. It just turned out that way.

Siblings Nikki Pranger, Joey Thome, Lauren Schulz and Alyssa Thome like to help people in different ways, and the Port Washington High School alumni followed their own paths to do it for a living.

Pranger, a 2002 Port High grad, is the biosafety coordinator at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. Joey (class of 2004) is an operating room nurse at Froedtert Hospital in Wauwatosa. Schulz (2006) is an obstetric and gynecologic nurse at East Mequon Aurora Medical Center. Alyssa (2007) is a cardiothoracic nurse at Aurora Medical Center in Grafton.

Their jobs are serious; patients whose lives sometimes hang in the balance depend on their dedication and expertise. But this close-knit quartet shows a different side when they get together, often at the family’s lake house in Neshkoro.

Whether it’s conversation, playing cards or just clowning around, they are the group people hear from a distance.

“It’s very loud and very raucous when we’re all together,” Pranger said. “There’s definitely good-natured ribbing among all of us­—who’s the better nurse?”

Beyond the laughter and the sometimes sarcastic dinner conversation lies a deep respect and admiration for one another. They shared practicing inserting IVs on the same pincushion at home and now share empathy. Having a loved one to confide in who knows their job makes decompressing after a tough shift a little easier.

“This is a very stressful job. It tugs at your heart all the time,” Joey said.

Their parents James and Anne Thome sit back in amazement at their children. Neither is in the medical field—James is a plant manager at a steel company and Anne is an accountant.

“I’m very proud,” Anne said.

Joey said he and his sisters are in fitting fields. “Our personalities suit all of us well. Lauren is such a caring person, (ob-gyn) was her calling,” he said. “Alyssa is very detail-oriented. For me, the body is like putting a puzzle back together.”

For Pranger, her job is “a matter of helping people. I always wanted to end up doing that, and I really liked science at Port High,” she said, praising the late biology teacher Larry Brumm.

Pranger worked at a lab at the Mayo Clinic while studying chemistry, biochemistry and industrial hygiene at the University of Minnesota. She calls herself a “nontraditional millennial” since she hasn’t job hopped—she has held the same position for years but will be going back to school in the hope of obtaining a leadership position at the hospital.

For now, her primary job duty sounds simple enough.

“When people are doing research on bacteria and viruses, I make sure that they do it safely and that we protect our staff, the environment and the community,” she said.

The work she supports has been put on the world stage. Vice President Mike Pence visited the clinic on April 28 to see its progress in fighting the coronavirus.

“It is interesting to be living in a pandemic. It’s hard to wrap your head around something you’re right in the middle of that will become a textbook issue for future generations,” Pranger said.

Joey’s introduction to health care began in person, early and often.

“I have broken pretty much every bone in my body,” he said, ticking off a list of hand, toe, nose and teeth.

Joey said the human body always interested him, and shadowing another Port resident, Julie Prom, a surgical technician at Ascension Columbia-St. Mary’s Ozaukee Hospital, sealed the deal. He earned an associate degree in nursing at Milwaukee Area Technical College and went back to Chamberlain University for his bachelor’s degree in nursing.

He has worked alongside doctors during planned operations, such as putting in ankle plates, but he has treated a fair share of wounds from gunshots and car accidents.

Part of his job is to take patients into the operating room. He uses his easygoing personality and sense of humor to try to get them to laugh or smile first.

While elective surgeries slowed during the pandemic, things are starting to pick up, he said. He has no hesitation regarding patients with the coronavirus.

“If you need surgery, I have to give you surgery,” he said.

Joey said he receives satisfaction from treating patients, regardless of their conditions, and isn’t comfortable being called a hero, an accolade health care employees have been given during the pandemic.

“It’s not gratifying because it’s Covid-19, it’s gratifying because it’s a patient,” he said. “It’s hard to accept the hero label. I knew what I was getting into at a tier-1 hospital. This is what I chose to do, and I love it. This doesn’t make be a hero. It’s a job.”

Joey, however, has built a reputation. Some patients even request him.

“Once they’re a patient of mine, they’re part of the family. They’re here to get better. The patient is my fixation,” he said.

For Schulz, helping deliver babies was a lifelong interest. She got started in her career during high school when she worked as a certified nursing assistant before earning a nursing degree at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh.

“There are no two labors, there are no two deliveries that are the same,” Schulz said.

After being with expectant mothers for as many as 12 hours, Schulz said “you really get to know the patients.” Some have become Facebook friends with her.

Schulz has two children of her own. Her first was born a month early, and Schulz said her co-workers took good care of her.

“Your nurse,” she said, “can almost make or break your experience.”

She switched to being a nurse in the clinic for more regular hours in order to spend more time with her family.

She doesn’t see patients who have the coronavirus. They are all screened before they come to the clinic, she said.

Alyssa had an experience in a hospital that determined her career. She had surgery on her foot and “the nurse put me at ease,” she said. “It was actually life changing.”

“She wanted to switch channels her junior year of college,” her mother said.

“And I have since apologized to her,” Alyssa said.

She majored in kinesiology, and her credits transferred when she got accepted into UW-Milwaukee’s nursing school on her first attempt.

Alyssa exclusively treats patients with the coronavirus in the intensive care unit, where visitor restrictions make it difficult on them. Alyssa said she isn’t a hugger but will break out of her comfort zone for her patients.

“We become basically their second family,” she said. “When I grab the hand of a patient, I can see their anxiety reduced.”

Joey knows the impact something as simple as holding hands can make.

“Therapeutic touch,” he said, “goes a long way.”

Alyssa said the coronavirus drastically changed her job. She learned how to suction ventilators and realized she would like to work in a critical care section of a hospital.

It has also altered her personal life. Because she is on the frontlines, Alyssa has decided not to visit her nieces, nephews or elderly family members for now.

But when the family does get together, Alyssa said, “We love hard.”