Am I Qualified?

[ksreuter]

As a home health nurse am I qualified to take a wound care ceritification? I read all the requirements and they seem to be unclear about whether or not I'd qualify for the experience. I am the director of nurses of a home health agency. I do visits as part of my job because we're a small agency.

Any ideas?

[AMN74]

Do you have your BSN? You have to either go to a 6-8 week course where they provide clinicals, or if you do it on line you have to find some place to do your clinicals and get the required number of hours/practice with wounds and take the required course work to sit for the WOCN testing. There may be some other "wound certifications" out there that I don't know about.

[ksreuter]

I do have my BSN.

I'll look in to the courses. I live in a pretty rural community and I'm not sure where I'd be able to do clinicals.

[AMN74]

WOCN is the "queen" of wound certifications. There may be some other wound certifications out there, but I am not familiar with them. I work for a very large home health agency and we have several WOC nurses that we can consult with. Of course we are required to photo all wounds q 14 days and include measurements and wound documentation at least weekly. They usually look in the chart and make recommendations but there have been times that I could not get ostomy appliances to work properly and they have made home visits with me to make suggestions. They are a great resource. I also had the great privilege to work with the remarkable lady that was the president of the WOCN society for years. She has stepped down from her position,(both at my job and as the president of the WOCN) but she is a dynamic speaker and teacher and I learned so much. Annually she holds wound seminars in my area that are updates on wounds, treatments etc for CEUs and I always try to attend. Become a WOC Nurse - Wound, Ostomy and Continence Nurses Society this is what I found when I googled them. I hope this helps! Good luck in your endeavors!