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Foundation Provides Funding for Specialty Nurse’s WOCN Training
Kathleen Foley, a registered nurse at Benefis, recognized the growing need for nurses with certification in Wound, Ostomy and Continence Nursing.
“Caring for ostomy, colostomy and continence patients is a specialty field that we don’t learn in nursing school,” said John Jackson, registered nurse and manager of the Benefis Wound Care & Hyperbaric Medicine Center.
So Kathleen accepted the challenge of a grueling eight-week course at the prestigious University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. She was among a dozen nurses from across the nation who began the training on Jan. 1, 2009.
“As far as someone who is certified in Wounds, Ostomy and Continence Nursing, they are very rare to find,” said Kathleen. “There are only eight or nine in the state of Montana.”
Kathleen is one of two nurses at Benefis certified in the wound and ostomy specialties, and she is the only nurse with certification in continence.
“My main interest originally was wounds, but I had worked with home health and with ostomy patients, so all of that just followed suit,” said Kathleen, who works in Acute Care at Benefis.
Funds from donors who give to Benefis Healthcare Foundation’s Greatest Need Fund were used to send Kathleen to the training, which cost $10,000. The fund provided $7,500, and Kathleen covered the rest of the bill.
“We are so grateful to have received funding from Benefis Healthcare Foundation for Kathleen to attend this training,” said Jackson. “Our patients need this care, and her training absolutely would not have been possible without this help from Foundation donors.”
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