All three certs necessary?

Specialties Wound

Published

I'm in the Emory wound care program. At first I thought I would go after all three certifications (wound care, ostomy, continence). I'm not sure if this is necessary, however, as many of the job postings I see only require wound care or don't specify exactly which cert they want. Experienced wound care nurses: what is your opinion, especially for a new wound care nurse like myself? Does it help to have all three certs or is wound care enough?

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Specializes in Army Nurse, CEN.

I think the ostomy cert is very beneficial in marketing yourself against other wound certified nurses. I have all 3 and haven't really used my cont. knowledge much, just because I haven't needed to. So I guess it also depends on your practice setting. We see many ostomates in our clinic that have both ostomy and wound issues.

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I was thinking that too -- for whatever reason I feel ostomy care is sought after along with wound care.

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I was curious about this as well. I have been working part time wound care since Jan 2017 and with a WCC since Feb 2018. I now realize I want my WOCN. I believe I will do ostomy first and when my WCC expires I will do the wound portion. How is the program at Emory?

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I've been told it's one of the best. It's been well organized so far, which is important for me. They have recorded lectures, which is nice, and a bridge week in person before clinicals start.

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Specializes in Cerified Wound Ostomy Continence Nurse.

The large healthcare conglomerate (family? goliath? planet?) of hospitals that I work for requires all three scopes currently, regardless that "Continence" is rarely used in our acute care setting. Some nurses have been grandfathered in that only have W or O, but when they look for replacements or additional staff, ...all three are needed. They also don't post that they need to be "Certified", BUT I've had a manager tell me it's because as a company, it's because they do not care to supplement/tuition match, so the interview algorithm they use weeds out everything that doesn't specify CWOCN.

YOUR MILEAGE MAY VARY.

Continence? It's more useful in my personal life among my perimenopausal friends! j/k - but the Urology department thinks it's awesome - like, "Oh, LOOK! A unicorn!!"!

Best of luck - my Emory education experience was terrific.

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