Wound, Ostomy and Continence Nurses Society

The Wound, Ostomy and Continence Nurses Society (WOCN) has announced the exceptional results of a recent research study that showed wound, ostomy, and continence (WOC) nurses are a key factor in achieving better patient outcomes related to WOC conditions. This study, the Effectiveness of Wound, Ostomy and Continence Nurses on Agency-Level Wound and Incontinence Outcomes in Home Care, is reported to be the largest and most comprehensive study ever undertaken on WOC care. Results found that facilities with WOC nurses had significantly better patient improvement and stabilization in services for wounds, incontinence, and urinary tract infections compared with facilities without WOC nurses.

In the more than 400,000 episodes of care included in the study, home healthcare (HHC) patients treated with a WOC nurse improved dramatically compared with HHC patients without a WOC nurse. The numbers indicated that patients were

* more than 2.3 times likely to have stabilization of urinary incontinence,

* 1.2 times as likely to have stabilization of urinary tract infections, and

* 1.16 times as likely to have stabilization of fecal incontinence.

This study was made possible by a WOCN Society grant to a team of investigators at the University of Minnesota School of Nursing. Chartered in 2010, the study successfully met its goals to compare both incidence and patient outcomes in pressure ulcers, stasis ulcers, surgical wounds, urinary/bowel incontinence, and urinary tract infections for patients and facilities with and without WOC nurses.

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