Mentorship

According to a recent MGMA Stat poll, 60% of health care organizations offer an onboarding/mentorship program for new health care professionals. This process involves the transfer of knowledge from 1 clinician to another. While this premise sounds straightforward, it is more nuanced.

Wound care professionals may struggle to meet the ever-increasing needs of patients while they focus on learning new technologies or knowledge in a rapidly evolving field. Mentorship programs allow for easier knowledge transfer to speed up the learning process.

For years I was the only medical doctor doing inpatient wound consults in my hospital. I was continually amazed at the variety of wounds that reflected a wide gamut of human disease. Each wound was unique, and beyond the many pressure injuries and venous stasis lesions there were wounds from cancer, substance abuse, vasculitis, trauma, surgical dehiscence, and hematologic disorders. Most doctors viewed these as an unrewarding burden, requiring extended time unwrapping and rewrapping lesions that were malodorous, painful, and sometimes unhealable. The nurses and medical residents were puzzled at my enthusiasm and dubbed me “The Wound Man.”

by Catherine Milne, APRN, MSN, ANP/ACNS-BC, CWOCN-AP

We need mentors in wound care. Why? Our number of wound care providers cannot meet the overwhelming needs of our patients, our traditional practice patterns are changing from acute to post-acute care, reimbursement models are variable and technology is rapidly shifting. Nursing, physical therapy and medical schools are teaching less and less wound care. Many times, what is being taught is archaic.

By Jeanne Cunningham, Founder of WoundSource

After seeing about 100 pictures of wounds, I was beginning to feel sick. The year was 1985 and there I was, a recent college graduate in my 20s, sitting in a cramped office at the Crozer Chester Medical Center in Chester, PA, watching slide after slide of feet, elbows, legs, bottoms, in fact, every part of the human body with open, colorful wounds.

By Karen Zulkowski, DNS, RN Wound Course Instructor, Excelsior College

Dr. Karen Zulkowski is recently retired from her role as associate professor at Montana State University-Bozeman, where she taught evidence based practice and lead field research for nearly 20 years. She began wound care research in her early days in graduate school, eventually obtaining her DNS from New York State University at Buffalo. She is currently working on the International Ostomy Guidelines for 2020 and is executive edit for the WCET Journal. Throughout her accomplished career, Dr. Zulkowski has displayed a commitment to advancing knowledge of wound care through research, mentoring and teaching.

By the Wound Source Editors

Martin D. Vera, LVN, CWS is the Coordinator of Wound Management at Patience Home Health Care in San Antonio, Texas. He has been working in the wound care field for nearly 20 years, helping countless patients, teaching wound care best practices, and improving standards at his care facility. His career has demonstrated an extraordinary passion for patient care, a commitment to doing the right thing, and a strong faith.

By Fabiola Jimenez, RN, ACNS-BC, CWOCN

Fabiola Jimenez is a Wound Ostomy Continence Nurse and Adult Clinical Nurse Specialist at Detroit Medical Center Huron Valley Sinai Hospital, a small community hospital of 158 beds in eastern Michigan. She has been a nurse since 1988, when she entered the field after graduating from the University of Oklahoma. Throughout her accomplished career, her work has demonstrated a dedication to caring for patients and a lifelong commitment to educating herself and others.

By Michel H.E. Hermans, MD

The first time you see your name published as the lead author of an article you are filled with pride. If an article is rejected you are filled with frustration.

As a child, I did my best to teach my stuffed animals. I lined them up perfectly, and set up my little card table and chairs. I couldn’t wait to grow up and become a real teacher. Teaching what, I didn’t know. Well, since then I have become a wound care educator for physicians and nurses. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about wound care education. Not education in terms of course curriculum, but education as the process of transforming one’s thinking and perspective.

By Diana L. Gallagher MS, RN, CWOCN, CFCN

I recently had the privilege of attending a patient's funeral. I would imagine that most nurses attend funerals for special patients from time to time. As a Certified Wound Ostomy Continence Nurse (CWOCN®), I often care for patients with chronic conditions. Over time, I get to know them and their families very well. A lot of them have become more than patients…some of them are even my friends. I celebrate their successes and I mourn their losses.