If you’re a nurse with a passion for skin and wound care, you may want to consider expanding your professional marketability by becoming wound care certified.
Average Salary for a Certified Wound Care Nurse
So how much do wound care nurses make? According to some online sources for wound care nurse salary data, the average annual wound care nurse salary ranges from $47,000 to $86,000 and an average annual wound care nurse salary at just over $69,000.
Keep in mind that salaries for wound care nurses can vary greatly from the annual rates, depending on a few other factors, including the state and city you in which you practice, your level of education, the size of the organization, and whether or not you have wound care certification. All of these play a role in your earning potential.
For instance, the Nurse.com National Nurse Salary Report showed nurses at all levels tended to have average higher annual incomes in western states, including California, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington.
How Much Do Wound Care Nurses Make Per Hour?
If you wonder how annual salaries translate in hourly rates, top paying companies can offer hourly rates of up to $88 to wound care nurses, although hourly rates often range from around $30.00 to $56.00 per hour.
Again, location, education, and certification can be deciding factors in where you would land on the hourly rate scale.
If you are interested in the skin and wound care field and think these salaries match your income goals, becoming certified could open doors to more job opportunities.
Demand for Nurses and Wound Care Nurses is Growing
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), nursing job openings are anticipated to increase quicker than all other occupations through 2028.
The expected rates of growth for employment for LVNs and LPNs, RNs, and NPs are 11%, 12%, and 28% respectively through the year 2028, according to the BLS.
“The demand for all nurses is very high,” said Amy Yancy Mangum, MSN, NNP-BC, Associate Chief Nursing Officer for Advanced Practice at Duke University Health System in Durham, North Carolina.
Mangum said given that wound care often requires a multidisciplinary approach, and nurses play an integral role in the delivery of wound care, she expects to see an increased need for wound care nurses also, adding, “Duke provides strong support for recruitment of wound care nurses.”
Medicare denies payment to healthcare providers when their patients are diagnosed with specific hospital acquired conditions. Pressure injuries (PIs) are one of the conditions considered hospital acquired by Medicare, which wound care nurses regularly encounter.
Duke Health launched a unit-based Skin Care Champion Program, as part of an overall pressure injury prevention plan. “This Skin Care Champion Program has been key in decreasing our facility-acquired pressure injury rates” said Mangum.
The program involves certified wound care nurses to provide targeted education and training for Duke’s Skin Care Champions. “This empowers them to share this knowledge with their co-workers, and to monitor unit-specific acquired pressure injuries,” Magnum explained.
The Increase in Skin Breakdown Increases Need for Expert Care
The need for hiring nurses who are knowledgeable in skin and wound care will likely increase for several reasons. One reason is the rising rates of diabetes and other chronic conditions that can lead to skin breakdown and wounds.
One example of a chronic condition associated with the development of wounds is peripheral artery disease (PAD). PAD is more common than most people think, with approximately 8-12 million people afflicted with it in the U.S. alone.
Increasing rates of diabetes is another contributing factor to the higher rates of wounds seen in the U.S. and around the globe.
Approximately 30 million people in the U.S. have diabetes. Given that about 15% of patients with diabetes develop diabetic foot ulcers, diabetes rates have resulted in increasing numbers of patients with wounds.
Mangum said, “As society continues to grapple with the nursing shortage across the U.S., I believe we’ll see an increase in jobs and salaries for all nurses, especially for specialized nursing skillsets, like wound care.”
Check out our on-site and online options for our wound care certification courses, including Wound Care, Diabetic Wound Care, Nutrition Wound Care, and Ostomy Management Specialist.
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