Barbara Rozenboom BSN RN CWON

I am working as a wound ostomy nurse for UnityPoint at Home.

I am part of the Central Resource team based in our Urbandale office.

I am one of five WOC nurses and I am assigned to provide wound ostomy services for our offices in the Quad Cities, Muscatine, Quincy and Waterloo.

Our home care WOC practice is unique in

that we use a computer software program

to assist the field clinicians in the

management of wound ostomy patients in

the home care setting.

I try very hard to

keep an equal

balance of work

and family. As you

see by the photo I

am very blessed

to have six

adorable little

ones in my life ,

"my peeps" .

I have a new favorite role and title "great Auntie Barb" to Peyton, Beckham and Blakely.

I spend a lot of time with my sisters family and am fortunate that they all live near me.

Dennis, my "spousal equivalent" has been an important part of my life for of almost 25 years.

We enjoy spending time with his children and three grandsons Mason, Dash and Jax.

I like to read,

browse on

Pinterest and

sew. Those of you

who know me

well are aware

that I can't and

hate to cook but

enjoy dining out

at new places.

I did nursing school

step by step.

I finished LPN

school in 1982

Mercy School of

Nursing in 1987

BSN from

Graceland

University in 1999.

I have been a WOC

nurse for 15 years!

WICKS School for Enterostomal Therapy.

I attended the four weeks of class in Camp Hill, PA and was the only one in my class to stay the whole four weeks on site.

I ate split pea soup about four nights a week at Perkins which was located in the parking lot of the hotel.

I recorded my class notes on cassette tapes and listened to them on my commute to clinical in Iowa City with Bev Folkedahl.

I did my other clinical hours at Iowa Methodist. Mary Mahoney was my preceptor there and today we are colleagues and share desk space at UPAH.

I was encouraged by my preceptors to become an active affiliate member from the start.

I served as affiliate secretary for four years. This was back before email was popular and I did all correspondence by snail mail.

My claim to fame was the first affiliate pictorial membership directory. I can still recite some members mailing addresses by memory!

I served as president elect then served two years as affiliate president from 2011-2013.

This is my last year as past president.

I have served on a fall conference committee for 15 years.

I helped develop the annual ostomy education day and participant in planning this event every year.

I was honored to be named Iowa WOC nurse of the Year in 2010 and was named one of the 100 Great Iowa Nurses on 2014.

I served on the national WOCN Society marketing committee for four years.

I attended Nurses in Washington Internship in 2011. It was an awesome experience.

I have had the privilege to work with Mary Mahoney and Dorothy Doughty on a project to accurately classify linear wounds that develop in the gluteal cleft.

We have published two JWOCN articles, conducted three consensus sessions at national WOCN conference and won the Merit award for our poster entitled "wounds that fall between the crack".

I participated in the content validation process for the WOCN OASIS guidance document.

Recently I co authored the MASD, MARSI and skin tear chapter of the WOCN core curriculum due to be published in 2015.

In November 2014, I was one of twenty WOC nurses to be asked to develop consensus statements for minimal discharge criteria for ostomy patients who receive home care services.

I wish I could say foot care as I truly believe in another life I was a podiatrist. However due to my back injury I can't stoop over and provide foot and nail care anymore.

I enjoy helping patients with ostomies adjust to life with an ostomy. Although sometimes it is a challenge it is very rewarding to hear when a patient who has struggled with pouching issues uses a combination we have developed and achieves an acceptable wear time.

I help facilitate our local ostomy support group and often leave our meetings with a warm feeling in my heart when I witness an experienced ostomy patient providing support and helpful advice to a brand new ostomy patient.

The software we utilize in our practice allows us to manage hundreds of patients in our 12 agencies - currently almost 1200 in total.

Even with 5 WOC nurses on staff we would never be able to reach out and provide service to that many patients by making home visits.

We also do a large amount of staff education on wound ostomy topics. It is exciting to have a nurse come up to you after a class with interest in wound ostomy nursing.

Our administrators are very supportive of our WOC department. They encourage and support our need for continuing education and active participation in our professional organizations.

I would encourage them to first take the Wound Treatment Associate (WTA) course to be certain this is a specialty they want to pursue.

I would encourage a new WOC nurse to get involved in the WOCN Society and the Iowa Affiliate of the WOCN Society right away.

I would assure them they will be invigorated and inspired by the colleagues they meet, the friendships they will create and resources they acquire by getting involved in our organization and by attending meetings and conferences.

I attended a preconference Leadership class led by former WOCN Society president Bernie Cullen. She told us to go home and appoint ourselves a professional "Board of Directors". I went home and carefully selected my group. These nurses that I chose to this day remain my mentors and close friends.

I think our biggest challenge today

and probably still in five years is

teaching clinicians and patients the

important of managing the chronic

diseases that are often the

underlying cause or barrier to

healing their wounds.

I think we need to promote personal

responsibility for health

management and incorporate

patient accountability in our health

care system. It is very frustrating to

see thousands of dollars being spent

on healthcare services and supplies

when the patient refuses to adhere

or be part of the solution.

I also hope that our society becomes

more educated and accepting of

palliative care practices and faces

the reality that not all problems can

be resolved but can be well

managed.

I have two. When I worked acute care we had a young woman who was a quad. She came into our facility with horrendous wounds and was near death from sepsis. She was in our health care system for many months and we all got to know her well. She went on to complete wound closure and when I left my position in acute care she had one of the nurses take a picture of her healed butt, sunny side up and made me a card with that photo. She was delightful.

My other favorite patient was a dear elderly lady. She had a fistula that spewed like a volcano. She too spent months in our facility and we got to know her very well. She LOVED Dancing With The Stars. To divert her attention away from her spewing fistula I watched every episode of DWTS so we could talk about the show during her wound care. She was finally able to be discharged to her daughters home and enjoyed the remainder of her life surrounded by her loving family.

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