WOCN® Society’s 50th Annual Conference

Gisele Castonguay
Nurse Practitioner
Central Maine Medical Center


Gisele Castonguay has offered the WTA program through her institution to both hospital and surrounding regional facilities since 2015. The program is offered twice yearly in a classroom style setting , meeting once weekly for 6 weeks. The goal of the initial program was to provide further education to the inpatient nursing staff and to help develop wound warriors on each nursing unit. Since the implementation of the WTA program over 100 individuals that include nurses, NP’s, PA’s and PT’s have successfully completed the program. The program has impacted our institutions pressure injury rates in a positive way as well as enhanced our ability to provide timely wound care to the inpatient population. It has also provided a much needed community resource for affordable wound education in the region with inadequate WOCN access. The Ostomy Care Associate program was piloted study in our institution, allowing 17 nurses from across the region with varied clinical practices, to test the program prior to the official launch. This also provided an opportunity to provide basic didactic and hands on ostomy education to nurses in a rural setting who have limited access to an experienced WOCN nurse.

Sessions :