AAWC Update: Our Holiday (and Wound Care) Wishes
On behalf of AAWC President, Dr. Terry Treadwell, the entire AAWC Board of Directors, Members, Volunteers, and Staff, we wish you the most wonderful holiday season and look forward to your new or continued membership in 2012.
The AAWC is proud to have a niche family of nearly 1,600 professionally educated, multidisciplinary practitioners and other advocates of quality, evidence-based care, lay-caregivers, and patients who work hard to advance their knowledge, educate others, and support the mission of the AAWC.
But it is not enough. As we all know, the impact wound care has on our nation and the world does not receive nearly the amount of attention it deserves. You may be a practitioner, teacher, researcher, or other representative for wound care. You may or may not support the AAWC with dues-paid membership, but you know at least something about wound care.
We clearly need to take a major, united approach to tackle the issues at hand because chronic wounds are an epidemic that will continue to affect more, not fewer, people over time. As we seek the best education for ourselves, we need to educate the world about the importance of best practice in wound care, including US government agencies, so our patients can receive the support they need. This is a huge task. But we at the AAWC are focused on this problem in more ways than one and with your support, we will effect change.
Helping is easy. We are calling on you to spread the word and to educate the world. Please consider it a gift to the AAWC this holiday season to do one or more of the following:
1. Contact your entire email distribution list outside of wound care professionals. Solicit family, friends, and coworkers to support the AAWC. It is free for the lay-public to be part of our WIN (Wounds In Need) network. Express to them that even just providing their names will bolster our cause. Send those names and addresses to kstrauss@aawconline.org.
2. Place a sign-up sheet at your front desk, asking for names and email addresses of patients and lay-caregivers who support quality wound care and want to receive AAWC news and information. They will be added to the WIN network.
3. Not a member? Join the AAWC as a professional. Dues are inexpensive and tax-deductible. The financial benefits pay for the membership many times over. Learn about our benefits at www.aawconline.org. If you are a layperson, contact Karen Strauss at kstrauss@aawconline.org for a free WIN membership.
4. Ask your child’s school nurse to join the Association or at least to view our website to download our basic wound care education brochures. Better yet, print them off and send them in with your child for the nurse to view.
5. Educate your children on the basics of proper, minor wound care. They will tell their friends what to do when they scrape their knees and elbows on the playground, proliferating good initial care.
6. Offer to give an inspirational speech, provide an in-service at your clinic or hospital, or participate in a school assembly. Then, let us know so we can spotlight you in an upcoming newsletter and provide you with materials for your talk.
7. Share a personal wound care story. Write an article for our patient or professional newsletter. For more information, contact Tina at tthomas@aawconline.org.
8. Give the gift of a membership this season to a colleague who may not be able to afford it on his/her own. Student membership is only $60, and would surely be appreciated.
9. Donate via our website. Every dollar counts to achieve our mutual goals.
10. Come up with your own recruitment idea. Let us know and we will send you a flyer to print to make it easier to sign-up people. For every professional member you sign up, you will be registered for a chance to win a free membership renewal! For every layperson, patient, or advocate you sign up, you will have an impact on the greater community!
11. Commit to at least one of the above as your New Year’s gift to the world right now! Then, email tthomas@aawconline.org and share your plans. Everyone who participates in any way will be acknowledged, unless you prefer to remain anonymous.
Not just professionals. The AAWC does not live within a microsphere. We consistently reach out to and assist the lay-public, providing information, education, resources and support. One look at our new website www.aawconline.org shows our dedication to a universal approach to our not-for-profit organizational stance and structure.
The WIN (Wounds In Need) group now is offered free lifetime membership and support, networking, education, and information about wound care, as well as an annual report of Association activities undertaken to achieve the AAWC’s goals. Membership for WIN is free and does not expire — no renewal notices to worry about and only periodic information is sent to enhance knowledge and spread awareness. The AAWC is the leader in interdisciplinary wound healing and tissue preservation. Follow us on Facebook and LinkedIn.
This article was not subject to the Ostomy Wound Management peer-review process.
