Enhancements to the Wound Treatment Associate (WTA) Program

Enhancements to the Wound Treatment Associate (WTA) Program

WTA PROGRAM UPDATE MAINTAINS ACCURATE AND RELEVANT EDUCATION WITH CUSTOMIZABLE SKILLS COMPETENCIES, ALLOWING COURSE COORDINATORS TO CHOOSE AND TAILOR SKILLS DIRECTLY RELATED TO THEIR PRACTICE SETTING.

The WOCN Society strives to advance the quality of care delivered to patients with wound, ostomy and continence care needs. This desire to ensure all patients receive high quality and evidence-based care led to the creation of the Wound Treatment Associate (WTA) Program in 2012. Since its inception, the WTA Program has provided evidence-based wound training to over 7,000 nurses, therapists, advanced practice providers and medics. In October of this year, revisions and enhancements to the program were launched by the Society based on feedback from participants, course coordinators, Society leadership and the WTA Advisory Committee. The changes have been to ensure continuous quality improvement in the education available to the healthcare community.

Recent enhancements made to the WTA Program include updates to education modules and participant resources to accurately reflect changes to support surfaces and pressure injury terminology. The competency section of the program has expanded to allow for more flexibility based on the area of healthcare for the participants. Braden Risk Scale for Predicting Pressure Injury Risk and Wound Identification are two additional competencies added to the program. This change gives Course Coordinators the ability to choose four of the six possible competencies tailored to the specific educational needs of the participants. Additionally, ANCC-accredited Contact Hours for nursing increased from 24 to 32.25 to accurately reflect the amount of time spent completing the program.

The WTA Program enhances clinician ability to facilitate optimal care for patients with acute and chronic wounds under the direction of the WOC specialty nurse, WOC advanced practice registered nurse or physician as members of a collaborative wound care team. For more information about the WTA Program, visit wocn.org/wtaprogram.

Sara Coverstone, RN, MA, CWON WTA Advisory Committee Member, Illinois

Jennifer DeLegge, RN, BSN, CWOCN WTA Program Course Coordinator, Illinois