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How to Become a Wound Care Nurse | Salary, Educational Requirements, Job Overview

Are you thinking about becoming a wound care nurse? Wound care nursing is an excellent career field to enter as a nurse. This article will discuss the job overview of a wound care nurse, job setting, educational requirements, salary, and like & dislikes.

What is a Wound Care Nurse?

This is a specialty of nursing where the nurse concentrates on wound care of a patient. Wound care nurses assess, monitor, treat patient’s wounds and provide education to patients and their families.

They are consulted by the health care team to treat wounds and develop a plan of care for the health care team to follow. For instance, a place where I worked the doctor would consult a wound care nurse, who would come in assess the wound, develop a treatment plan, implement it, and then develop a plan of care for the nurses to follow in taking care of the wound.

They care for all types of wounds such as burns, diabetic/arterial ulcers, pressure ulcers, assist with hyperbaric therapy (HBO) etc. It is important to note that a wound care nurse can become certified to not only care for wounds but ostomies & continence issues as well. Below I discuss the different types of certifications a nurse can obtain through WOCNCB.org.

Video on Wound Care Nursing

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Where do Wound Care Nurses Work?

  • Wound care clinics
  • Hospitals
  • Home Health
  • Long Term Care Facilities
  • Hospice

Typical Job hours of a Wound Care Nurse

Generally, they work Monday-Friday (8-5 pm), but this depends solely on the type of job setting you choose to work. A nurse who works in a clinic may work 8-5 pm. While a wound care nurse in a hospital may work three 12 hours shifts per week.

How to become a Wound Care Nurse

You have to a BSN nursing degree and an active RN license. You must meet the WOCNCB board requirements. They offer many different certifications to be a wound care nurse.

Most employers prefer you have some type of wound care certification.  These certification programs typically take 2-3 months to complete (includes lecture and clinical time). After completing the program you must pass a certification exam in the specialty you choose to earn.

Most common wound care certified programs:

  • CWOCN®: Certified Wound, Ostomy, Continence Nurse
  • CWCN®: Certified Wound Care Nurse
  • COCN®: Certified Ostomy Care Nurse
  • CCCN®: Certified Continence Care Nurse
  • CWON™: Certified Wound Ostomy Nurse

It is important to note that some employers will hire you without a certification with the promise you will complete a certification program within so many months of being hired.

Wound Care Nurse Salary

According to BLS.gov, the salary of a wound care nurse is 69,790/year and $33.55/hour and this varies depending on your certification, years of experience, and geographically location.

Likes

  • Watching a patient with a serious wound heal and knowing you played a role in helping this patient get better
  • Nice working hours and not as demanding and stressful as bedside nursing
  • Depending on where you work you get more patient interaction time

Dislikes:

  • Frustrating when you have non-compliant patients who typically keep coming back over and over
  • Always changing (supplies and techniques) so you have to keep up-to-date constantly
  • Competitive field

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