"Boo Boo Patrol." What is the role of the acute care inpatient WOC nurse?

The role of the WOC nurse differs depending on the health care facility and their needs. A broad definition of the WOC nurses role for wound care patients exists at our 800 plus bed academic teaching hospital. That broad definition combined with ostomy patient volume averaging 65% of the WOC nurse’s census, often leads to confusion and missed opportunities to positively impact patients and WOC nurse job satisfaction as wound care nurses. 

Current practice allows all licensed professionals to consult the WOC nurse. Despite multiple efforts to guide practitioners through education and descriptors in the order entry system the WOC nurses continue to receive multiple inappropriate, unnecessary consults. The WOC nurses spend valuable time triaging, providing care already outlined in current nursing procedures and protocols, providing duplicate care when other services are providing care and providing care for incidental wounds or “potential wounds.”  We sought to correct this misuse of our resources and develop a revised role description for the facility. 

The first step was to collect data on all wound consults received by the WOC nurse service to better understand the size and complexity of the problem.  Two WOC nurses were assigned to collect and evaluate data on every wound consult for three weeks in October 2012. Compliance with WOC nurse recommendations was evaluated with 24 hour follow up for each patient. 

Seventy wound consults were evaluated during the three week period. Only 30% of the consults received were appropriate for WOC nurse expertise and recommendations.  WOC nurse wound care recommendations were followed only 50% of the time.   

The data collected was used by the WOC nurses and management to evaluate the WOC nurse service, reallocate resources to provide optimal care for wound and ostomy patients and increase WOC nurse satisfaction.