In last month’s article, we discussed wound care certification and things to look for in a certification education program. This month, we’ll go into a little more detail as to why a nurse may wish to pursue one of these valuable certifications.

Demand for Quality Wound Care Is Consistently Increasing

As of 2017, more than 1.3 million Americans were receiving care at a residential skilled nursing facility. While occupancy rates declined gradually over the 2010’s, residency rates in SNFs have begun once again to climb, reflecting the increasing age of the US population.

Many of these residents will require advanced wound care. Consider the following statistics:

  • According to the CDC, between 2% and 28% of patients in an SNF will suffer from a pressure wound.
  • The National Institutes of Health report that between 25% and 34% of SNF patients are diabetic, with the coincident increase in likelihood of diabetic foot ulcers, skin failure, and other wounds.
  • Medicare spent about $2.01 billion on wound care for elderly Americans in fiscal year 2018, and that number is increasing.

As the number of patients in SNFs continues to increase and more and more nurses reach retirement age, the demand for skilled wound care nurses will continue to increase for some time to come.

Wound Treatment Is a Significant Impact to SNF Earnings

Since 2008, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has considered facility-acquired stage III and IV pressure ulcers to be “serious reportable events,” and will not reimburse providers for their treatment.

Beyond the reimbursement considerations, wounds make up a significant portion of the liability landscape in the medical field. Fully one-fifth of all US medical claims and 10% of all settlements are related to wounds. Pressure ulcers alone lead to more than 17,000 lawsuits in the United States each year.

As facilities strive to prevent these “never events” from occurring, they will be increasingly seeking to hire healthcare professionals who are skilled in recognizing, assessing, and documenting wounds.

Wound Care Certification Increases Your Earning Potential

As with any specialization, wound care nurses have greater earning potential than nurses without a specialization. On average, wound care nurses make about $51.75/hour, and those with more than 20 years of experience can expect to earn more than $150,000 each year.

Of course, pay will vary based on location and experience, and certificated RN’s can expect to earn significantly more than LVNs or LPNs.

Wound Care Nurses Operate With More Autonomy

While wound care nurses don’t perform diagnoses of patient wounds, they do follow assessment protocols and typically have significant leeway in the application of those protocols. Outside of advance practice RNs, wound care nurses have more autonomy than nearly any other nursing specialty.

Additionally, wound care nurses are an invaluable resource for the other members of a facility’s nursing team. A wound nurse serves as a trusted source of information about the assessment of wounds and their progressions, offers advice on executing wound care protocols, and most rewardingly of all, is a source of comfort and reassurance to a facility’s patients and their families. As patients deal with wounds, seeing a specialized wound care nurse consistently can help them overcome many of the anxieties and distress that come with wound treatment.

Wound Care Nurses Have More Regular Schedules

In wound care, the guiding principle is “urgency, not emergency.” As a wound care specialist, you’re more likely to have a regular, 9-5 schedule without nights or weekends. While you may be expected to be available by phone during off hours to consult with other nurses in the event of an unexpected development with a patient, you will seldom be required to interrupt your personal time to make an unexpected trip back to the workplace.

Wound Care Nurses Have a Broad Knowledge Base

In order to become a wound care nurse, your certification education will involve focused study on a multitude of different subjects, including cardiovascular circulation, metabolic balance, proper nutrition, and other areas that affect optimal healing. Wound care protocols and standards of care are continually being developed and improved, so there’s always ample opportunity for additional professional development.

While all of this knowledge will serve to make you a better wound care nurse, it will also make you all the more able to branch out into other areas of specialization and let you bring your expertise to bear on general practice areas, as well.

Why Choose a QSM Wound Certification?

With a team that’s been providing exceptional wound care services for more than twenty years, Quality Surgical Management is proud to offer our QSM Wound Certification program, offering nurses seeking a wound certification a convenient program informed by our deep base of experience.

Offered fully online, a QSM Wound Certification allows you to fit your studies into your schedule, without requiring lengthy class meetings that force you to shuffle your routines.  Courses cover a wide range of wound topics, from the physiology of healing to dressing treatments, providing a complete understanding of wound care best practices.

Our program offers nurses a chance to improve their hiring and promotion potential, become a resource for their colleagues, and provide better care for their patients. After you complete your course of study, your “Gold Dot” certification pin is a symbol of your dedication to providing exceptional wound care.

Are You Ready to Take Your Nursing Career to the Next Level? Call QSM to Find Out About Our Wound Certification Program – 800-226-8874