Wound Care Nurse Salary and Responsibilities

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In the nursing world, wounds are absolutely everywhere. From fresh surgical incisions to chronic pressure injuries, basic wound care is an essential nursing skill for almost all areas of nursing. On top of their unfortunate prevalence, how they are treated can carry significant weight in downstream effects.As a result, wound care represents an enormous financial burden for the healthcare industry that demands constant attention and education for both patients and nurses. Today, wound care has become a critical specialty in the industry with specific certification requirements and duties. If you’re considering entering this high-demand field, you’ll need to know what to expect in terms of  wound care nurse salary and responsibilities if you want to negotiate competitively and make the most of your career.

What Does a Wound Care Nurse Do?

Wound care nursing is much more than dressing wounds and sending patients on their way. It’s a holistic role that considers the best course of treatment to support the patient in optimal healing. Wound healing is impacted by things like nutrition, underlying medical conditions, and empowering patients to participate in the plan. It’s a complicated intersection of many factors and skill sets!Of course, not all wounds are created equal, and wound care nurses are prepared to manage all aspects of care related to surgical wounds and pressure injuries. They do so by integrating the following into their practice:

• Assessment of wound prevalence
• The use of standardized processes to assess patient risk
• The implementation of preventative measures
• Staging and managing acute and chronic pressure injuries
• The management of surgical wounds for optimal healing
• Collaboration with medical providers in the use of healing therapies and treatments
• Ostomy care and management
• Peer and patient education on wound management

Finally, wound care nurses need to take a long-range view of healing when they create and manage protocols for patients. Wounds often take a long time to heal, and they can have a huge impact on someone's quality of life if they become chronic. The process can leave a patient feeling frustrated and defeated—especially when trying to manage other health complications—and ultimately result in a worse situation with an existing wound. Bedside manners and good people skills are a must for wound care nurses in order to empower patients to be an active participant in their own care. It’s often not financially ideal or even necessary for patients to return for every dressing change, so making sure they have the information and materials to care for themselves effectively is a huge time and economic benefit wound care nurses can deliver for their institution.

How to Become a Certified Wound Care Nurse

All certified wound care nurses must be certified by the Wound Ostomy and Continence Nursing Certification Board (WOCNCB) by examination, and eligibility requires a bachelor’s degree of any kind or higher is needed for an application to be accepted. Additionally, a nurse must complete additional hours of training, either through the traditional pathway or the experiential pathway. For the traditional pathway, the nurse must have completed an accredited Wound Ostomy and Continence (WOC) nursing education program. The experiential pathway includes direct clinical hours and continuing education credit hours as a means of justifying eligibility to take the exam. In pursuit of certification in wound care, there are four paths to choose from:

• Certified wound care nurse (CWCN): This specialization is designed for nurses wanting to move from general nursing practice to specializing in wound care. Care scope includes the prevention and treatment of acute and chronic wounds, including pressure injuries and complications associated with wounds.
• Certified ostomy care nurse (CCON) is for RNs who are interested in moving from general nursing practice to the specialized field of ostomy care for patients who may have fecal or urinary diversions, fistulas, or percutaneous tubes/drains, and need post-surgical ostomy care.
• Certified continence care nurse (CCCN) is ideal for RNs who are passionate about the highly-specialized field of continence care. Continence care may involve managing patients with fecal or urinary dysfunction and incontinence due to muscle and/or neurological issues, surgery, psychological conditions, and other disorders.
• Certified wound ostomy and continence nurse (CWOCN) allows RNs to combine the two specialties which have overlapping knowledge and skills.

Wound Care Nurse Salary

Wound care nurses are definitely in high demand, and deliver enormous benefits to their institution in terms of patient outcomes and reduced spending. Hospital-acquired pressure injuries represent a $26 billion dollars liability every year, and competent wound care nurses are highly valued. The average wound care nurse salary today is $107K, which is about $25K higher than the national average for general nursing.

Ongoing Training

The importance of continuing education is impossible to overstate in nursing. Most states have requirements that last throughout a nursing career, and wound care nurses need content that is specific to their role. It can be time consuming remaining current, but there are excellent options for online continuing education that can make it easy to complete and register compliance with appropriate agencies.

Could Wound Care Nursing Be for You?

A competitive wound care nurse salary and the added benefits of playing an active role in a highly prevalent healthcare problem makes wound care nursing an attractive option for many professionals. Premiere offers industry-leading coursework to support wound care nursing, like Wound Care 101 and Wound Care: Pressure Ulcers 101 by Karen Bauer, DNP, APRN-FNP, CWS, FAAWC, MAPWCA Director of Wound and Vascular Services, University of Toledo Medical Center.All courses offered by Premiere are created by industry-leading leading licensed professionals that are top experts in their field.