Certification for RN not BSN?

Specialties Wound

Published

Hello nurses,

Anyone have any experience with wound certification training for RN with Associate's Degree? That is, not a Bachelor's in Nursing?

I see a couple advertised on alllnurses site. Looked into a couple. One requires a certification exam, another is just online self paced and no exam.

They require a considerable investment.

Anyone here who has pursued this avenue and has comments to share?

Thanks

From what I know all wound certification programs have course work and clinical and are quite costly and of course once u graduate the program u have to pay and take the actual certification exam.

Thanks, Lynn. Yes, I've looked at two that advertise on this site. One is either onsite or online training, with required (recommended) reading from about 8 books. After taking the 5 days of hands on training, you sit for the exam. The cost is around $3500 plus the fee for testing.

Another one is just online and does not require/recommend reading from various current textbooks and such as listed in the above option, and does not appear to require hands on clinical. It also does not require sitting for a test. I don't know what the cost is because after i realized there is no certification test, I lost interest.

Hoping that someone out there in the webiverse has some actual experience with a cert program for ADN-RNs (who are in the numerical majority at this time). We ADN-RNs are on the front lines of wound care in the community. I see a lot of wounds in home health. Saw a lot of them in long term care. So far the most credentialed person I've encountered was an RN who was the rep for the wound care supply company.

Specializes in Wound Care , Foot Care,and Geriatrics.

Hi Redfoxglove,

Are you Canadian or American? If you are Canadian I know of several wonderful programs ranging from a few months all the way to a Master's in Wound Science- which my co worker has!

I did my Advanced Wound Care online with a in person class evaluation and testing at the end; skills ckeck off etc. I am lucky in that I had exposure to tons of wounds while I was taking the courses :) which helped tremendously!

Hope you find one that you enjoy.

duplicate post

Any non BSN RN can sit for the CWCA exam (certified wound care associate), there is no education, it is simply a certification exam that confers specialty knowledge in wound care for $375--see http://www.abwm.com

The "WCC" (wound care certified) education is a week long (upwards of $3,000), with an exam at the end (I personally don't feel it should confer wound care specialty knowledge because they basically teach you to the test, but it's great--and expensive--education).

There are many, many CEU courses you can take to further your education, they do not confer you a "certification" but they're accredited and informative! Some great ones can be found at http://www.sawc.com--at the naccme website link, also the global wound academy at the smith&nephew website, as well as WoundTalk

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