The Wound Care Unemployment Line

  The economy has brought on an entire onslaught of challenges for the current wound care professional. Due to their passion for wound care, clinicians in this area are sometimes faced with extremely difficult choices.

  What if you suddenly find yourself out of work because your clinic has shut down or even eliminated your position?

  What if the only clinic in your area of the country isn’t hiring for your specific area of expertise?

  What if due to personal reasons, moving isn’t an option?

  What if you have to leave wound care for a segment of healthcare that you are less passionate about?

  This author currently finds herself in this exact position, searching for answers to many of these questions. This author gives the readers of Today’s Wound Clinic an exclusive inside look at the challenges of being unemployed in wound care.

  NOTE: This is only an individual’s story and does not represent the wound care community as a whole.

The Spark of Healthcare

  I became a nurse at a time when everyone around me seemed to be going back to school to join the ‘healthcare army’. My Certified Public Accountant (CPA) boss and his bookkeeper wife had helped to get each other through nursing school. My neighbor who was married with two boys was in nursing school. Nursing seemed to be in the water.

  I had previously been an administrative assistant for nearly 10 years after graduating from college, and often found myself more dispensable than I had anticipated as the economy fluctuated. Once I decided to return to school, I opted for an associate’s degree in nursing—I had already earned my bachelor’s degree in English.

  I was well aware of the backbiting among nurses about who among them was better prepared—Bachelor’s, Associates’ or Diploma prepared nurses. However, I just wanted the nursing knowledge and license, more education could come later. I completed my AAS while working part time and went off to work on getting a strong base in medical surgical nursing before deciding on which focus of nursing excited me. During my final year of nursing school, our state board relinquished the associates’ prepared nurse the ability to specialize, but at that time, specialization was the furthest thing from my mind.

Entering the World of Wound Care

  The common thread of interest in all of my clinical positions was wound care. As a floor nurse, I never had much time to give to wounds beyond assessing the wound and replacing the dressings as ordered, but I was always fascinated by the treatments available and which ones the WOCN deemed best for a particular kind of wound. Later, during my home hospice and home health positions, my interest in wound care fully crystallized, as a wound of some sort was most often the primary diagnosis for many of my patients.

  After 10 years of nursing in a variety of settings, I applied for a wound care position that did not specifically require current certification (only the willingness to pursue it) and was thrilled to find that I was hired by the wife of my former CPA boss who was familiar with my work ethic.

  I happily held this position for nearly six months, adjusting to the growing pains and frequent staff turnover of a new facility while struggling to apply the policies and procedures dictated by the corporate office.

The Highs and Lows

  Once the wound care program was up and running and reached “cruising speed,” my plan was to begin to pursue my WOCN certification in the evenings. Unfortunately, as management changed, so did the staffing model, and despite the positive feedback I’d been receiving, my position was redesigned and I was released from my post.

  I became jobless just as the economy descended to its nadir, and at the end of a calendar year—when many companies put a freeze on hiring. Relocation was not an option, as my husband’s IT security consulting firm was ensconced in open contracts. The few jobs posted in my area for wound care nurses required the WOCN certification.

A Local Lacking

  In central Virginia, only one brick and mortar school offers a WOCN track, and it is only open to its masters’ program nurses. There is a singular online option (www.webwocnurse.com) accepted by the WOCN, which will be the most viable option for me. I plan to pursue these classes once I am again among the ranks of the employed.

  Over the last 10 years, I’ve noticed the growth of wound care clinics in our area. Our local teaching hospital has had their clinic for decades, while other hospitals have established clinics more recently. I have also noticed some hospitals have clinics staffed and run by national wound care corporations. Even in light of this growth, open wound care positions are not plentiful in my area, which forces me to consider other areas of nursing as well.

And So It Begins

  Healthcare informatics is another aspect of nursing and healthcare that I find fascinating. I have worked with computers for many years, even prior to my career shift into nursing, and it seems only logical that my technical comfort level would lend itself well to the informatics side of nursing. We are inevitably heading toward the mass establishment of electronic medical records (EMR) and the notion of participating in that shift is also enticing.

  Lizz V. Binsfield, BA, RN is a currently unemployed (yet optimistic) wound care nurse who, in addition to pursuing her WOCN, is also a freelance writer. She, her husband and an assortment of critters live on a small farm in Central Virginia.