Is this typical for a wound care nurse position?

[pn5437]

Hi everyone-I am an LPN who currently works at a SNF. I have several years of experience in LTC working the floor, and around 1 year accumulated experience of doing wound care on the weekends. I was offered the mon-fri wound care position at my current job (yay!).

I was told its part time, 5 hours/day, which is great because I'm currently in school anyway. When asked about my responsibilities/job description, I was told I would be doing the wound care (obviously), doing rounds once a week with the WC physician and measuring, and changing/updating orders for treatments as needed. And that's pretty much it. I asked about documentation and they have an RN who does the MDS, the wound documentation, etc. Although it was not mentioned, I'm assuming patient/family education will be done by myself as well.

So..I'm sitting here very happy but also confused. It seems like there HAS to be more to it than that, no? NOT that I'm complaining LOL but is that typical of an LPNs job description in this field? Or is there something they are not telling me...

Thanks in advance for any information!

[yesitslaura]

That does sound typical. The set up for a lot of out patient wound clinics is with RN case managers that go in with the dr, write all the orders, do all the charting. Then a treatment nurse that will check the patient in, get their vitals and undress the wound, then go back in and apply the dressings (usually educating as you wrap) after the dr has ordered them. So it sounds like your job will just be a slight twist on this set up due to it being LTC. Congrats on your new position!

[TammyG]

The LTC wound nurses around here are all LPNs, and they are very good because they see so many wounds daily. But they all document as far as I know. The WC MD only comes by once per week, and of course bandages must be changed intermittently.