A familiar face in Pearl River County was recently appointed by Governor Phil Bryant to the Mississippi Board of Nursing.
Sandra Culpepper, an LPN at Pearl River County Hospital and Nursing Home, was appointed to the Board to serve with the other appointees to promote policies and scopes of practice in their respective nursing fields, she said.
The Board consists of LPNs, RNs, nurse practitioners, educators and one consumer, all appointed by the governor.
Recommended by a former instructor, Culpepper hopes to dive into this new challenge head first, she said, using what she’s learned in and out of the classroom to help patients.
Culpepper became a nurse nine years ago at the urging of her husband, who she helped put through nursing school several years prior, Culpepper said.
“I fell in love with the profession,” she said. “I never really gave thought to the profession beforehand.”
For Culpepper, her epiphany came while still in school and treating a patient. During the treatment, the patient flat lined, she said, but they were able to bring them back.
“Every decision in my life I haven’t made…I was pushed to it,” she said.
Now, she spends her time teaching CNA classes at Pearl River County Hospital and Nursing Home and Pearl River Community College.
Her students at the hospital are required to work in the nursing home for six months, another field Culpepper didn’t expect to enjoy.
“There is history every day,” she said. “Their stories and the histories they’ve lived bring me as much joy as it does to them.”
Teaching those classes brought her love of education and nursing together, Culpepper said.
“If I could, I would be a student forever,” she said.
Culpepper teaches her students the importance of compassion, empathy and love for their patients.
As a new Board member, she hopes to take those same ideals and apply them to her role as a passionate advocate for patients statewide, Culpepper said.
She said she also wants to ensure the LPN profession is taken seriously and respected, as well as adding an accountability that she holds her students to.
“It’s okay to make mistakes, but you have to admit them, and then fix it,” Culpepper said. “I don’t do excuses…people’s lives are at stake.”
Culpepper will attend orientation in Jackson this week before she is officially sworn in on Friday, she said.
The Mississippi Board of Nursing meets every two months, Culpepper said.
Her appointment also includes special committees within the Mississippi Board Of Nursing and an appointment to the MLPNA Board, which meets monthly, she said.
“This is a culmination of all the hard work and all the areas I’ve covered,” Culpepper said. “This is the top for me…I’m super excited but also nervous.”