Cancer and its treatment can lead to various problems of the skin, urinary tract and digestive tract. The Wound, Ostomy & Continence Nursing (WOCN) department provides specialized patient care and professional nursing training to solve or manage these problems.

Our WOCN nurses provide support, care and education for M. D. Anderson inpatients and outpatients with skin problems, incisions, fistulae, ostomies, and urinary or fecal incontinence. We address cancer patients’ unique needs, including services related to reconstructive surgery, graft-versus-host disease, externalized tumors, and chemotherapy, surgery or radiation. We educate patients prior to surgery, participate in patient assessment and care, and suggest dietary changes or treatments to manage problems. We also teach patients how to use diverted urinary or fecal ostomies, so that every patient goes home being self-sufficient. Our care occurs in a creative, professionally supportive environment, where all WOCN nurses are required to have, or be pursuing, WOCN certification.

Our department also offers one of the few WOCN training programs in the nation. Upon completion of the program, nurses are eligible to take the Wound, Ostomy and Continence Nurses Society (WOCN) national certification exam.