When tackling the complexities of wound healing, it is easy to overlook your patient’s nutritional status on this journey. We often glaze over nutrition in wound care and focus on other concerns when the healing process is not optimal, posing questions like: Have we ordered vascular studies? Have we gotten them on to the most adequate support surface? Is there an underlying infection we need to address? Why has healing stalled?!

The frustration can be overwhelming. Which is one of the reasons to remember the importance of nutrition in wound healing.

According to the National Library of Medicine, good nutrition is essential for healing, though this is often the last box we check when reviewing wound healing requirements. Nutrition in wound healing is so much more important than the attention we often give it, and conversations surrounding nutrition should take place with patients and their caregivers at the beginning of treatment. Ongoing reinforcement of this education is also critical. Let’s look at some of those essential nutrients.

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Whether you are looking to increase your wound care nutrition knowledge or advance your career, a new wound care certification course for Registered Dietitians (RD) and Registered Dietitian Nutritionists (RDN) will help you meet your goals, while improving outcomes for your wound care patients.

I often get funny reactions when I tell people I specialize in wounds. Lay people always assume I mean bullet wounds. I notice them nodding with confusion when I go on to explain that I do not see many bullet wounds, but treat plenty of pressure injuries and diabetic foot ulcers.

When I have the same conversation with nurses, patient care assistants, and other healthcare providers who do not specialize in wounds, they seem to nod with a similar amount of confusion. They immediately think of topical care and turning and repositioning—all important to wound healing—but they overlook the fact that in order to build new tissue it is necessary to have adequate nutritional substrate onboard.

Clearing up this confusion is one of the reasons I am so excited to share the new nutrition certification available from the National Alliance of Wound Care and Ostomy^® (NAWCO^®). Hopefully every skin and wound care team will soon have a certified nutrition member to help heal wounds from the inside out!

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