WEB WOC On the Road – Phoenix, Arizona

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Reunited and it feels so good! After a 2-year COVID-19 break, WEB WOC (JoAnn Ermer-Seltun, Bonnie Rolstad, and Kathy Borchert) attended the Symposium on Advanced Wound Care (SAWC) in Phoenix, Arizona. It was so fun to see so many of our colleagues and alumni in real-life presenting and attending educational exhibits.

Wired-life versus Real-life, there’s no comparison! To be physically present and experiencing the SAWC through all the senses was such a joy yet felt a bit awkward for just a moment! From sun-up to sun-down engaging in brain-stimulating CE sessions and industry-sponsored symposia certainly rekindled this WOC nurse’s passion for wound care! We even spent the allotted hours in the exhibit hall gathering information about products, services, and diagnostics to enhance the wound healing experience. Never again will we take for grant it all the benefits of touching, feeling, exploring, and debating products with industry representatives!

Hot educational topics included wound hygiene to reduce wound bed pH and bioburden utilizing hypochlorousacid, the utility of concentrated surfactant dressings in eliminating biofilms, the advent of a new FDA & Medicare-approved platelet-rich plasma (PRP) cellular/tissue product for diabetic foot ulcers, and an explosion of artificial intelligence (AI) leading to non-invasive imaging diagnostics to aid the wound care specialist in 3-D wound measurement, wound mapping, tissue oxygen, thermal, and bacterial fluorescence imaging devices.

Certainly, the burst of scientific knowledge and AI drives the development of advance wound care products and diagnostics. These are powerful tools to streamline wound assessments and determining the microscopic needs of the wound! We believe valuable wound care education elevates evidence-based practices. We left the SAWC conference empowered and knowing without a doubt that WOC nurses are ‘Difference Makers’ in improving our patient’s care, outcomes, and quality of life!

Next stop is the WOCNext 2022 in June in Fort Worth, Texas. WEB WOC will have an educational booth, as well as attending educational sessions.