Wound/ostomy and continence nurses, expressed in initials as WOC nurses, is a specialty in nursing that confers nurses with special skills in wound care, focusing on patients with bowel control problems and skin problems (Westra et al., 2013). The contribution that the WOC nurses bring into the healthcare industry is immeasurable, not to mention to the particular health facilities that employ such nurses. Cleveland Clinic is one of the leading healthcare providers in Cleveland, Ohio. The clinic is a multispecialty, which implies that it provides a range of healthcare services to its patients, including wound care and incontinence services (Cleveland Clinic, 2015). However, the clinic has no WOC nurses.
The goal of hiring WOC nurses at Cleveland Clinic is to enhance efficiency with which patients suffering from acute and chronic wounds, skin problems, and incontinency receive high quality care (Bliss, Westra, Savik & Hou, 2014). In the recent past, the clinic has experienced a surge in the number of patients requiring such services. Unfortunately, due to the lack of proper personnel to handle such issues, the patients are referred to other facilities with the expertise to handle such health problems. Unfortunately, referrals translate to delay in care, which may sometimes lead to preventable fatalities and disabilities among the patients. For this reason, the clinic intends to hire WOC nurses in order to facilitate treatment of patients who visit the clinic requiring the nurses’ services.
References
Bliss, D. Z., Westra, B. L., Savik, K., & Hou, Y. (2014). Effectiveness of wound, ostomy and
continence–certified nurses on individual patient outcomes in home health care. Home
Healthcare Nurse, 32(1), 31-38.
Cleveland Clinic. (2015). Cleveland clinic: Who we are. Retrieved January 27, 2016, from
http://my.clevelandclinic.org/
Finch, B. (2013). How to write a business plan (Vol. 35). London: Kogan Page Publishers.
Westra, B. L., Bliss, D. Z., Savik, K., Hou, Y., & Borchert, A. (2013). Effectiveness of wound,
ostomy, and continence nurses on agency-level wound and incontinence outcomes in
home care. Journal of Wound Ostomy & Continence Nursing, 40(1), 25-53.
