Keesler nurse striving for 'doctor' designation Published Oct. 1, 2009 By Steve Pivnick 81st Medical Group Public Affairs KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. -- Soon nurse Juanita Mullins can be called "doctor." Ms. Mullins, a clinical nurse with the 81st Surgical Operations Squadron post anesthesia care unit, is currently working on her doctorate in nursing practice at the University of South Alabama College of Nursing. "I am in the first class to be admitted to the program. As part of the requirements, we have to complete a systems-change project for our residency. For my DNP project - 'Using Human Patient Simulation to Improve Emergency Airway Management Safety in Post Anesthesia Nursing: A Pilot Project' - I am devising a program that will use Keesler Medical Center's human patient simulators to augment the PACU/ Ambulatory Surgical Unit orientation, staff development and recurrent training. I am also training as a sim lab super-user because I will be here after others move due to permanent change of station orders." Ms. Mullins started her class in August 2007 and will complete her DNP in May. Forty students are expected to be admitted each fall and the college expects to graduate 130 DNPs in the first five years of the program. Unlike a Ph.D. program in nursing, which prepares students for careers in research, the DNP program places more emphasis on practice, the evaluation of health-care outcomes and the development of new programs of care. "The DNP program prepares nurses to work in interdisciplinary teams, in new and emerging technology, with complex health-care problems and issues, and to be able to evaluate research and put the best evidence into practice," Ms. Mullins explained. Ms. Mullins has been a Civil Service employee for 30 years. Before becoming a registered nurse, she was a U.S. Forest Service researcher. Her husband, Roland, is a registered pharmacist with the 81st Diagnostics and Therapeutics Squadron pharmacy Flight. He retired from the Veterans Affairs Gulf Coast Health Care System as director of pharmacy services. Their daughter, Jennifer, is an Air Force captain and judge advocate stationed at Davis-Monthan AFB, Ariz. Their son, Roland III, graduates from Florida State University in December with a master's degree in classics and teaches undergraduate-level Greek and Latin.