BURRILLVILLE – A family nurse practitioner who has served the Burrillville community for more than three decades has seen her final patient, retiring from Well One this year after 31 years at the Pascoag-based medical center.
Joan Mullaney was honored this month with a citation from the Burrillville Town Council, with friends and colleagues thanking the doctor for her longtime commitment to the community.
“Joan has been instrumental in the primary care program at Well One, which now provides services to more than 11,000 patients each year, including 25 percent of the Burrillville town residents,” noted the resolution, read by Councilor Dennis Anderson, who also serves as vice chairman of the 13-member Well One Board of Directors. “Joan has exhibited commitment and dedication to Burrillville residents of all ages in the provision of primary medical care.”
A member of the RI State Nurse’s Association, Mullaney completed her bachelor’s at Rhode Island College, and received a master’s degree in nursing from the University of Rhode Island in 1979. She’s been a family nurse practitioner for 45 years, including her 31 at Well One Primary Medical & Dental Care, specializing in preventive health, primary care, pediatrics and women’s health.
A Glocester resident, Mullaney has also been affiliated with Miriam Hospital in Providence.
The center, which started in Burrillville more than 100 years ago with a single nurse serving the entire town in a borrowed horse and buggy, now has additional locations in Foster, Scituate and North Kingstown. Well One has long offered medical, dental and behavioral health services with offices along Bridge Way and Pascoag Main St., and has expanded in recent years to include specialty care, with services provided by more than 150 employees.
And one RNP had been there since it was just a small brick building with a couple of exam rooms.
In 2022, the Providence Journal interviewed Mullaney for a feature on Well One, and the nurse practitioner reportedly said she had stayed with the medical center for decades, in part, because it allowed her to meet the health needs of residents who could not to travel to the cities – and to treat generations of families.
“I’m helping people,” Mullaney was quoted as saying. “I was meant to be a caregiver.”
Councilors unanimously passed the citation, presenting it at a meeting on Wednesday, Jan. 10.
“Joan has been a steady, consistent and mentoring presence for generations of nurse practitioners,” the citation noted. “Joan has been a champion of preventative care for thousands of underserved Rhode Islanders.”
“The entire Well One organization is grateful for the creative and caring ways in which Joan has provided care to her patients,” read Anderson.”She will be remembered as being dedicated as both a physician and to our community.”
“We on the Town Council honor and commend Joan Mullaney and wish her and her family well in whatever the future may hold.”
