fighting tips?

[Newgel]

I'm having some trouble with the nurse bubble heads. With the mannequins and lying figures all you had to do was make then whiff their attacks and counter with a 2 hit combo, (always watching out for the mannequin grab). but the nurse has a string, even if I dodge the first hit either their whiff recovery is too fast or James has minus frames on dodge. How do I avoid their mixup?
I know you can get a hard knockdown by shooting their legs but Don't want to waste too much ammo because we all know in these games you save it for bosses