Summer: Tools for Success
During these incredibly hot days of summer, we are all focused on how to do more with less effort. We want to simplify our lives and reduce our workloads. A successful attempt at simplifying takes strong organizational skills, a willingness to discard the old and embrace the new and an awareness of tools that are easily accessible and readily available.
Organization is key to being successful and every WOCNCB certified nurse has learned how critical this strategy is in assuring that the work can be done in a timely manner without becoming overwhelming. Sometimes this is a lesson learned the hard way, but it is a critical skill to master. Everyone has his or her own strategies for prioritizing the work load, avoiding retracing steps and repeating efforts. In spite of the best organization, things do not always go as planned in our specialties. Sometimes that challenging ostomy or high-output fistula creates an unavoidable additional task but with a little advance planning, intuition, and experience we can all improve our organizational skills by being proactive.
The WOCN’s 43rd Annual Conference in New Orleans was a great opportunity to reenergize our practice. Each conference is more than a tool to enhance your practice; it is instead an entire toolbox filled with unique tools. Lectures help bring completed and evolving research to the forefront and allow us the opportunity to question the experts directly. Poster presentations enlighten us with the work that our peers are doing around the world. All of these offerings provide us with the most current and evolving research that we can embrace and incorporate into our practice. They also identify shifts in practice as new research identifies better solutions that will replace traditional practice patterns. The exhibit hall provides us with a seemingly endless array of tools for our practices. Another invaluable tool is the opportunity to network with peers, renew friendships, and maintain collaborative relationships with other experts across the world.
Your WOCNCB is proud to provide you with another invaluable tool: the third edition of our Evidenced-Based Practice literature review: Review of 2010 Evidence for WOC and Foot Care Nursing Practice. This synopsis of the most pertinent articles affecting practice has been compiled for your use and this year is expanded to include foot care nursing. I am confident that you will enjoy and use this tool as much as you have used the previous two editions. You can access the review here.
Tools are important for everyone. Each of us has a tool that is invaluable not only to our professional image but also to the public, healthcare partners, employers, and regulatory agencies. These groups are challenged with how to decode the “alphabet soup” and identify the best clinician to fit their complex needs. You can give them that tool by obtaining and then maintaining your WOCNCB certification. Simply by signing one of the coveted WOCNCB credentials after your name, you have clearly sidentified that your certification is the “gold standard”.
Diana Gallagher, MS, RN, CWOCN, CFCN, CHT
WOCNCB President
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