Loyola Nursing
Dr. Michelle Collins, Dean and Professor at Loyola New Orleans University College of Nursing
and Health, has spent her decades long career first as a registered nurse in Labor and Delivery
and Pediatrics, and then as a Certified Nurse-Midwife. As a practitioner, educator, and
administrator she is involved in a number of national nursing committees and task forces. Her
passion is helping to improve maternal-child heath and given that LA has the worst maternal-
child outcomes in pregnancy and birth, there is no shortage of work to do here.
Having spent a semester in undergraduate education in London, England working alongside
midwives of the National Health Service, Dr. Collins first saw nitrous oxide used routinely in
childbirth. In 2011, she led the nitrous oxide initiative at Vanderbilt Medical Center in Nashville,
Tennessee. Since that time, she has consulted for hundreds of hospitals to assist in
initiating nitrous services, as well as presenting on the topic frequently both nationally and
internationally.
And just for fun, at the invitation of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) network, Dr. Collins
writes a weekly blog for the British show Call the Midwife which you can find at the PBS
website.