Wound Care Nurse Career Overview

Sacramento, CA, United States

A wound care nurse is a registered nurse (RN) who manages surgical, pressure, and traumatic wounds. They are familiar with different types of dressings, drains, and treatments, and supplement nursing staff to focus solely on wound healing.

Wound care nurses must work well as part of a team and coordinate with the patient, family, physician, and bedside nurse. Sometimes they must also coordinate with discharge planners to arrange dressing changes at home.

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Where Do Wound Care Nurses Work?

Wound care nurses can work in many sectors of health care. Hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, and home care companies all employ this specialty. When working in a facility like a hospital, the wound care nurse will see patients in every department, from the ER to the nursery. A wound care nurse might visit settings such as:

Medical-Surgical Unit

Intensive Care Unit (ICU)

Specialty Wound Care Unit

Telemetry Unit

Skilled Nursing Unit

The hours required by wound care nurses vary by employer. Some hospital wound care nurses work 12-hour shifts, while others may work business hours Monday to Friday. Home care wound nurses can often make their own schedules, organizing their time with their patients.

What Does a Wound Care Nurse Actually Do?

No matter the setting, wound care nurses see patients throughout their day to assess, monitor, and treat wounds under the direction of a physician. Physicians often rely on a wound care nurses assessment, and ideally, they plan treatment together. A wound care nurses responsibilities include:

Continence management

Diabetic foot care

Dressing and ointment recommendation

Dressing changes

Managing surgical drains

Patient and family education

Pressure ulcer staging

Staff education

Wound assessment

Wound vac management

Wound care nurses gain expertise in all types of wounds:

Diabetic ulcer

Pressure sore

Gunshot

Penetrating trauma

Degloving

Surgical

Burn

Road rash

Skin tear

Laceration

Bites and stings

Each wound is a little different, and wound care nurses continually expand their knowledge. Wound care is highly studied, and new treatments emerge often. Wound care used to involve only gauze and sterile water or saline. Now, clinicians treating wounds of all kinds have a multitude of tools at their disposal. Here are some of the newest advances:

Alginate

Foam

Silver-infused foam

Transparent

Suction-enabled foam

Dressings used to look similar for every kind of wound, but can now provide targeted therapy to any kind of wound. A wound care nurse will need to stay at the forefront of research on new dressings, and be ready to suggest the best treatment for each patient.

How Much Does a Wound Care Nurse Make Per Year?

A wound care nurse makes the same amount as a registered nurse (RN) in any other setting, which is an average of $81,220 per year as of 2022, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

(BLS). This amount can vary depending on your work setting and the cost of living in the area. The low-end average was $61,250, and the high-end was $129,400. Your employer may be able to offer higher or lower compensation depending on which type of facility you work in:

General Medical and Surgical Hospitals: $90,600

Outpatient Care Centers: $97,200

Salaries also vary depending on which state a wound care nurse practices. The west coast generally pays nurses the best, but they also have a higher cost of living.

The west coast, New England states, and Alaska pay their wound care nurses the highest wage, but the cost of living in these areas can also be high. The lowest paying states are in the Midwest and some southeastern states.

Wound care nurse practitioners can earn a higher salary, which closely matches the reported salaries of any other nurse practitioner role. The average annual salary of a nurse practitioner was $121,610, according to BLS data from 2022. The low-end average was $87,340, and the high-end was $165,240. Salary can also change based on employment type:

General Medical and Surgical Hospitals: $129,330

Outpatient Care Centers: $134,030

The location of employment can affect wound care nurse practitioners as well, with the differences closely aligning with RNs.

The top paying areas for wound care nurses and nurse practitioners include:

San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA

Napa, CA

Vallejo-Fairfield, CA

New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ

Yuba City, CA

How Do I Become a Wound Care Nurse?

Aspiring wound care nurses must first graduate from an accredited nursing program with their Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN). After graduation, nurses will need to work in a setting that gives them the opportunity to manage wounds and gain experience.

Nurse practitioners (NPs) can also specialize in wound care. To obtain a certification , an NP must complete an accredited education program, and take their examination within five years of completion. Another option for NPs who have been already practicing for a while would be the experiential route. An NP must be able to prove 1,500 patient clinical hours completed within the previous five years, with 375 of those hours in the year prior to the examination date.

Wound care nurses and NPs cannot only specialize in wound care; they can obtain certifications in even more specific areas within that specialty:

Foot Care

Wound care nurses who specialize in foot care will work mainly with diabetic patients. If a patient has diabetes, their wounds are slow to heal, making foot care vitally important. Something as simple as a nail cut too far down can cause a life-threatening infection, and a wound care nurse plays an important role in helping patients with diabetes maintain their health.

If a wound nurse wants to focus on colostomies, ileostomies, and incontinence, they can get certified for just that. Ostomy surgery brings part of the gastrointestinal tract out through the stomach, and that area requires frequent cleaning and assessment. Ostomy wound nurses recommend and use the best ointments, pastes, and ostomy bags for each patient.

Why Should I Be a Wound Care Nurse?

Pursuing a career as a wound care nurse offers a lot of benefits. Wound care nurses can make a significant impact on patients lives by not only managing their wounds, but teaching them how to care for themselves. Specialized wound care helps patients heal more quickly and lowers the chances of complications.

The population of people over 65 in the U.S. is growing, and with an older population comes more chronic disease and skin breakdown . With more wounds on the horizon, wound care nurses demand will grow, providing job stability. Wound care nurses gain expertise in a crucial area of healthcare, but also experience the satisfaction of helping patients overcome challenging medical conditions and improve their overall quality of life.

Additional Resources About Becoming a Wound Care Nurse

To learn more about becoming a wound care nurse, these websites offer additional resources:

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