My Scope of Practice: The Intrigue of Outside Healing

“An education isn’t how much you have committed to memory, or even how much you know. It’s being able to differentiate between what you know and what you don’t.” –Anatole France, French writer

  When Rhonda Sullivan, PhD, RN, CWON, LNCC, started the iWOC Nursing Foundation in 2012, her intent was to give patients and healthcare providers free access to wound, ostomy, continence expertise.

What came of her initial goal was a dual-focus, educational service organization. Postacute facilities that lack the services of a WOC nurse are afforded access to complimentary education from a CWON through live and virtual educational programs. Patients who can complete a short assessment form and upload a photo can obtain individualized “speaking points” to facilitate discussion with their physicians; the iWOC Nursing Foundation equips them with knowledge essential to making informed choices regarding evidence-based wound and ostomy care. Dr. Sullivan encourages everyone to use any resources they can get their hands on. “Don’t be afraid to admit what you do not know and to seek out the answer,” she says of her efforts to inform. “I do not have all the answers, but what I have is 20 years of nursing education and experience, the knowledge of people who came before me, and Google.”

  In 1993, Dr. Sullivan graduated from the Florida Community College of Jacksonville (Jacksonville, FL) with her Associate of Science in Nursing degree. While in school, she worked as a Unit Secretary for the University Medical Center (Jacksonville, FL), and upon completion of her program was promoted to an emergency room nurse, where she worked in Intensive Care, Urgent Care, OB/GYN, and the Walk-in Clinic. Her responsibilities in advanced care included invasive line management, electrocardiogram interpretation, and recognition and treatment of lethal arrhythmias.

  Over the next few years, Dr. Sullivan continued to explore different avenues of nursing and worked in a number of positions, including as a home care nurse for Maxim Healthcare Services (Jacksonville, FL), a nurse manager and supervisor for the Taylor Care Center (Jacksonville, FL), and a relief charge nurse for Orange Park Medical Center (Orange Park, FL). In 2000, Dr. Sullivan began work at Memorial Hospital (Jacksonville, FL). During this time, she became involved in wound, ostomy, and continence care. “A mentor — Paige Padgett BSN, RN, CWON, CFCN — adept in all areas of ostomy care, drew me into her realm,” Dr. Sullivan says. “I was especially interested in complex cases. Seeing Paige play such a vital role in helping patients achieve the satisfaction of adequate wear time when no one else could help was like a magnet for me. I wanted to serve patients in that manner. I wanted to meet their complex needs with compassionate care and to give them help and hope. In honor of my mentor, I have worked to continuously cultivate my training and skill in pursuit of that endeavor.” In 2003, Dr. Sullivan earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Management and subsequently attended Metropolitan State University (Minneapolis, MN) in 2007 for her WOC Nursing Education with an ostomy focus. That same year, she also attended the University of Central Florida (Orlando, FL) to study Legal Nurse Consulting.

  In 2008, Dr. Sullivan started a new job (that she still holds) at the Mayo Clinic (Jacksonville, FL) as a Registered Nurse/Enterostomal Therapist. Her responsibilities include, but are not limited to, assessing and treating patients with acute and chronic wounds and with fecal and urinary diversions; participating with research groups; establishing a Skin Wound Assessment Team; and developing teaching tools and education modules that drive current practice. Despite her growing responsibilities, she has been able to continue her pursuit of advanced education. She earned her Masters of Science in Health Care Management from Ashworth College (Norcross, FL) in 2011 and completed her PhD work in Christian business at Jacksonville Theological Seminary (Jacksonville, FL) in 2012. Dr. Sullivan also holds silver level certification in the Mayo Quality Academy and is currently pursing gold status. She most recently completed the Workforce Certificate Series, attending a variety of communication, conflict resolution, and interpersonal classes.

   “I believe all of my education and training, albeit not directly related to nursing, work to enrich my life and allow me to give my best to those around me,” Dr. Sullivan says. “I made a decision over a decade ago to commit to WOC nursing and focus on being the best WOC nurse I could be. This decision was based on the fulfillment I found in the uniqueness of WOC nursing. It is the only area of nursing where healing occurs on the outside. We can see wounds actively heal and know we played a major part in that outcome. Even when healing does not occur, we can play an active role in facilitating treatment changes and physician intervention and often alter the trajectory of care for that patient.”

  All of Dr. Sullivan’s past achievements merge in her work with iWOC Nursing Foundation. “iWOC Nursing Foundation (www.iwocnurse.org) is a dual focus nonprofit service organization,” she explains. “iWOC Interact encompasses the online patient access system. I evaluate each patient submission, just as I would in my full-time WOC role, and individualized speaking points are provided. These speaking points allow patients to partner with their primary physicians to obtain evidence-based care and optimal outcomes. iWOC Instruct focuses on the healthcare provider in the post-acute setting to offer community education, training, and support services. This aspect of the organization is in its preliminary stages of marketing its free services to the Jacksonville and surrounding areas. Although my reach is currently limited by my availability outside of full-time employment, I hope to ‘reach one, teach one’ and to empower other WOCNs to seek out and meet the needs of patients in their own communities. It truly does take a village.”   Dr. Sullivan’s passion to provide free access to WOC expertise for both patients and healthcare providers helps define her scope of practice.

This article was not subject to the Ostomy Wound Management peer-review process.