Which wound program is right for you?

A: Here’s a rundown. Wound Management for Health Professionals (Levels I and II) has been preparing nurses, paramedics, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, physicians and others to be Wound Champions for more than a decade. You’ll gain the knowledge and skills to manage a broad variety of wounds, in a broad variety of settings, including acute care, long-term care, and home and community care. Wound Management Level I is a six-week course, and Level II is an eight-week course.

Wound Care for Clients Experiencing Inequities is a shorter (three-week) program designed specifically for those working in outreach, community paramedicine, mobile or street care, social and housing services, some areas of home care, and any other settings serving these clients. Clients experiencing systemic inequities may be those with unstable housing, using substances or facing socioeconomic challenges. They typically have more limited access to care, and fewer resources to support healing, so caring for these clients requires an innovative approach. The program explores the ways in which systemic inequities affect the causes of wounds as well as the healing process. You’ll learn to apply cultural humility and a trauma-informed perspective, and an inventive approach to wound care.

High-Risk Foot, Level I and High-Risk Foot, Level II are short three-hour synchronous (“live”) online workshops that explore issues related to the foot and lower limb. There are no quizzes or assignments.

A: Wound Management for Health Professionals is designed for nurses, community paramedics, physicians, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, and others. A clinical background is required. 

Wound Care for Clients Experiencing Inequities, on the other hand, is for both health and helping professionals. Health professionals includes those listed above as well as other professionals such as social workers. Helping professionals includes shelter and housing workers, harm-reduction workers, social service providers and others.

High-Risk Foot is especially for foot-care nurses, community nurses, RNs and LPNs in other areas of practice, community paramedics, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, physicians and others who care for clients with high-risk foot and lower limb conditions. A clinical background is strongly recommended.

A: In clients experiencing systemic inequities, wounds are commonplace and one of the most troublesome health issues they face, deeply affecting quality of life. If you are a helping professional, even if you are not caring directly for wounds, it’s crucial to understand what supports or hinders healing. This points you to many non-clinical steps that can make a big difference.

For example, knowing about how sleeping sitting upright, or spending long periods on a cold surface affect wound healing can help you work with clients to take what steps you can to avoid complications. You can also become familiar with everyday products that can be used for wound cleansing instead of relying on special, expensive and hard-to-obtain products used in hospitals.

A: You can take the programs in any order. If you’re working with clients experiencing systemic inequities, Wound Care for Clients Experiencing Inequities (WCCEI) could be a good first step: it’s short (three weeks), focused on the specific realities of your practice and offers plenty of practical tips. If you choose, you could then move into Wound Management for Health Professionals to expand your depth of knowledge and skills in general wound care. You could also add on High-Risk Foot for the special focus on the foot and lower limb.

On the other hand, if you’d like to start with a thorough grounding in the fundamentals of wound management with Wound Management for Health Professionals, and then “specialize” with WCCEI and/or High-Risk Foot, that approach appeals to many. There’s no right or wrong – only the path that works best for you.

A: Especially for those new to online learning, it can be surprising to discover how many skills can be learned in this environment. In Wound Management for Health Professionals, for example, you’ll investigate hands-on skills and choose one – such as compression wrapping or diabetic foot assessment – to demonstrate to your peers. In Wound Care for Clients Experiencing Inequities, you’ll practice communication strategies that underpin the complexity of wound care in your environment. To use other techniques, such as sharp debridement, your health authority will require further outside training. But within your scope of practice, in our interactive online environment you’ll gain the knowledge and skills you need.