Nicole Wheeler DNP, CNM (bv8083)

Nurse Midwifery Program 

142 Cohn, 5557 Cass Ave., Detroit, MI 48202

By appointment

As a DNP prepared nurse, Dr. Wheeler is passionate about serving women and ensuring that the evidence-based research conducted by her PhD colleagues is being brought to the bedside and clinics to improve women’s health outcomes. Her research has been focused on continuous labor support, postpartum depression and health literacy.

"There is significant evidence supporting provision of continuous labor support (CLS) to women in labor and the positive outcomes to the women, infants and birth. However, there is a significant gap between best-practice evidence and what is practiced on labor and delivery units," Dr. Wheeler explains.

Additionally, Dr. Wheeler has been involved in research that suggested that church member support decreased postpartum depression rates when compared with women who did not have access to church members to support them. An article titled “Church member support benefits psychological well-being of pregnant African American women” was published in the Journal of Christian Nursing in 2016. Most recently, she has completed a literature review focused on the themes of the impact of health literacy in postpartum depression. The article identified three major themes, including lower education in women leading to decreased health literacy, decreased health literacy leading to high rates of medical mistrust and very high rates of undiagnosed and untreated paternal postpartum depression. It is Dr. Wheeler's passionate belief that there is a correlation between health literacy and poor maternal and infant outcomes due to what she has seen in her clinical practice.

"I see women every day in my practice that cannot read or write and struggle to understand what previous providers have told them, what their medication bottles say, how to make infant formula, and don’t understand schedules of when their infant needs to be seen at the pediatrician. I have a strong belief that we could do better for them."

• DNP, Wayne State University, 2017
• BSN, Madonna University, 2012

• Maternal-child health
• Health literacy
• Postpartum depression
• LGBTQIA interests
• Nurse-to-nurse incivility
• Depression and anxiety
• Transgender health care
• Food insecurities

DNP project planning:

• Open to all DNP projects

Project types:

• Quality improvement
• Program evaluations

• Midwifery care
• Labor and delivery nursing
• Pediatrics
• Emergency room nursing

• Audritsh, N.L., Measuring the impact of health literacy on perinatal depression. Advances in Family Practice Nursing, 4
• Murn, N.L. (2019). Mothering the mother: An educational program for nurse-provided continuous labor support. Journal of Perinatal Education, 28(4), 199-209.
• Giurgescu, C. & Murn, N. (2016). Church member support benefits psychological well-being of pregnant African American women. Journal of Christian Nursing, 33(2), 87-91.

• Member, Sigma Theta Tau International, Lambda Chapter

• Health literacy
• Postpartum depression
• Transgender care in the labor and birth setting