Last updated on 1/9/26 | First published on 12/7/25 | Literature review current through Jan. 2026
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Authors:
Tiffany Hamm BSN, RN, CWS, ACHRN, UHMSADS,
Jeff Mize RRT, CHT, UHMSADS,
Elaine Horibe Song MD, PhD, MBA,
Topic editors:
Cathy Milne APRN, MSN, CWOCN-AP,
Scott A. Robinson MD,
more...
Coauthor(s)
Elaine Horibe Song, MD, PhD, MBACo-Founder and Editor, Wound Reference, Inc;
Professor (Affiliate), Division of Plastic Surgery, Federal University of Sao Paulo;
Volunteer, Association for the Advancement of Wound Care;
Google Scholar Profile
Disclosures: Nothing to disclose
Jeff Mize, RRT, CHT, UHMSADS
Disclosures: Nothing to disclose
Tiffany Hamm, BSN, RN, CWS, ACHRN, UHMSADS
Chief Nursing Officer, Wound Reference, IncDisclosures: Nothing to disclose
Editors
Scott A. Robinson, MD
Disclosures: Nothing to disclose
Cathy Milne, APRN, MSN, CWOCN-AP
Disclosures: Nothing to disclose
INTRODUCTION
In the complex and ever-evolving field of wound care, achieving optimal patient outcomes is a team effort. A single clinician, no matter how skilled, cannot manage a patient’s comprehensive wound care needs alone. This is why the ability to educate interprofessional team members is a cornerstone of advanced wound care practice - a vital skill recognized in wound care certification exams. [1]
INTERPROFESSIONAL EDUCATION IN WOND CARE
What is Interprofessional Education?
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), effective interprofessional education has been shown to enable successful collaborative practice, which ultimately strengthens health systems and improves health outcomes.[2]
Interprofessional education “occurs when students from two or more professions learn about, from, and with each other” to develop skills that are essential for interprofessional collaborative practice.[2]
Why is Interprofessional Education Important?
By integrating this collaborative model into healthcare settings, different disciplines can coordinate more effectively, leading to improved patient outcomes and a more efficient, supportive workplace. [2][3]
- Interprofessional education is a necessary step in preparing a “collaborative practice-ready" health workforce that is better prepared to respond to local health needs.[2]
- Collaborative practice happens when multiple health workers from different professional backgrounds work together with patients, families, carers and communities to deliver the highest quality of care. It allows health workers to engage any individual whose skills can help achieve local health goals.[2]
- A collaborative practice-ready health worker is someone who has learned how to work in an interprofessional team and is competent to do so.[2]
Interprofessional Wound Care Teams
The team supporting a patient with a chronic or complex wound is diverse, often including:
- Providers (MDs, DOs, PAs, NPs): Directing the overall plan of care, managing systemic issues, and performing procedures.
- Nurses (RNs, LPNs): Executing daily care, performing dressing changes, monitoring the wound, and educating the patient.
- Nursing Assistants (CNAs, NAs, MAs): Providing critical hands-on hygiene, turning and repositioning, and reporting changes.
- Physical and Occupational Therapists (PTs, OTs): Addressing mobility, offloading, assistive devices, and functional independence.
- Registered Dietitian Nutritionists (RDNs): Assessing nutritional status, identifying deficiencies, and recommending interventions essential for wound healing.
Why Interprofessional Education in Wound Care is Non-Negotiable
Effective communication and a shared understanding of the wound care plan are not just 'nice-to-haves'; they are essential for patient safety and efficacy.
- Ensuring consistency in care: A patient who receives conflicting information from different team members is at risk for poor adherence and delayed healing. Educating the whole team ensures everyone speaks the same language regarding dressing type, frequency, offloading protocol, and signs of infection.
- Optimizing skill utilization: Every team member brings unique expertise. By educating a Physical Therapist on advanced offloading techniques for a diabetic foot ulcer, or an RDN on the protein requirements for pressure injury healing, wound care clinicians unlock their full potential and integrate a truly holistic approach.
- Early problem identification: Frontline staff, particularly Nursing Assistants, are often the first to notice subtle changes in a wound or periwound skin. Educating them on what to look for - such as changes in odor, exudate, or the appearance of new redness - enables timely reporting and intervention, preventing minor issues from escalating.
- Promoting a culture of safety: Interprofessional training fosters mutual respect and provides a safe environment for all team members to ask questions and raise concerns, ultimately improving quality metrics and reducing the risk of hospital-acquired complications.
Making Education Stick: Strategies for Wound Care Clinicians
For wound care clinicians, being an educator is part of the job description. Bridging the knowledge gap across interprofessional teams is a critical component of ensuring patient safety and optimal outcomes. Below are strategies to effectively bridge the knowledge gap:
Focus on the Care Continuum (Collaboration & Transition)
Effective education must extend beyond the bedside team and the current facility. It is essential to educate everyone who touches the patient's care journey. This includes:
- Multidisciplinary team members: Reinforce each discipline's unique role (e.g., PT's role in offloading, RDN's role in nutrition) and how their contributions integrate into the overall shared care plan. Use case studies to illustrate how collaboration prevented an adverse event.
- Post-acute and home care providers: The transition of care is a high-risk point. Before the patient is discharged, provide standardized, clear education on facility-specific wound care protocols, formulary details, and "red flag" symptoms to the receiving home health nurses or long-term care staff.
- Non-wound care clinicians and staff: Educate non-wound care clinicians and staff on basic principles like infection control (hand hygiene), the importance of keeping pressure-reducing surfaces plugged in, and reporting any concerns about patient positioning or skin integrity they might observe. They are part of the patient's team, and their role is also important to maintaining the plan of care.
Harness Learning Tips and Tools
- Tailor the message: A quick bedside training on wound dressing changes for a bedside nurse is different from an in-depth lecture on advanced wound care interventions for providers. Customize the content to the learner’s scope of practice and existing knowledge.
- Use visuals and hands-on training: Wound care is visual. Utilize photos, case studies, and especially hands-on practice with new products or devices (e.g., negative pressure wound therapy units, compression therapy).
- Incorporate bedside huddles: Short, focused huddles during shift changes or before a complex dressing change are excellent opportunities for quick, relevant education on that specific patient.
- Provide accessible resources: Provide quick-reference guides, laminated protocols, or digital links that the team can access easily when a wound care question arises.
- Use the teach back method: Often applied when teaching patients and caregivers, this technique could also be applied to enhance communication among interprofessional team members, especially when introducing new protocols, educational content, or complex patient care plans. In an interprofessional setting, the "Teach Back" method requires one team member to explain a concept or instruction to another team member (or the group), and then ask the recipient(s) to repeat or demonstrate their understanding of the information in their own words.
Wound care is a marathon, not a sprint. By prioritizing the education of every member of the interprofessional team, we ensure that the entire care continuum is strong, consistent, and ultimately focused on achieving the best possible outcome for our patients.
RESOURCES FOR INTERPROFESSIONAL EDUCATION
This section provides Teaching Resources for wound care clinicians to educate interprofessional team members involved in the care of patients with chronic wounds.
- For assessment of patients with chronic wounds by non-wound care clinicians and wound care clinicians
- For transition of care of patients with chronic wound
- Provider to Provider Wound Communication Tool: Information transfer is an essential component of an effective Transitions of Care program. It is critical that each facility have a clearly defined method for its wound care providers to communicate relevant information about every patient who is leaving the facility with a wound.
- How to set up and optimize your wound care formulary: resources to help all healthcare professionals who care and treat patients with wounds select the most appropriate dressings and bandages for each patient. Also, to ensure seamless continuity of care when patients transfer across care settings (e.g., skilled nursing, home health), healthcare professionals should learn the wound care product formularies of collaborating facilities. Knowing which products are available allows for wound care plans that can be smoothly executed without interrupting treatment.
- Wound Care Patient Discharge Checklist: includes a sample checklist was created by a multidisciplinary consensus panel of experts (in acute, chronic, home, and long-term care and in rehabilitation medicine). It may be adapted to each organization Policies and Procedures, and completed during a typical hospitalization in preparation for discharge.
- For patient and caregiver education
- For nursing staff training and education in hospital-acquired pressure injury (HAPI) prevention
- For training modules in basic wound care
- For orientation, ongoing competencies and training modules in advanced wound care
- For limb preservation teams/ multidisciplinary wound center
- For referring clinicians: education on HBOT criteria
RESOURCES FOR COMMUNITY EDUCATION
Wound care education often extends outside the healthcare facility into community environments such as community-based clinics and schools. Examples include:
- For patient and caregiver education
- For schools (guidance for school nurses)
- For community-based clinics, in addition to the materials listed in the ‘Resources for Interprofessional Education’ section above, examples include:
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NOTE: This is a controlled document. This document is not a substitute for proper training, experience, and exercising of professional judgment. While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the contents, neither the authors nor the Wound Reference, Inc. give any guarantee as to the accuracy of the information contained in them nor accept any liability, with respect to loss, damage, injury or expense arising from any such errors or omissions in the contents of the work.
