Volume 42 Number 4

Our mission

The WCET's^® mission is to lead the global advancement of specialised professional nursing care for people with ostomy, wound or continence needs. As you know, this is done mostly by promoting worldwide specialised nursing education so that people with stoma, wound and/or continence issues may benefit from the care provided by these specialised nurses. The WCET^® International Ostomy Guideline (IOG) 2020 helped enhance the importance of being trained within the specialty, in continuing lifelong learning, and in highlighting how enterostomal therapists (ETs) / stoma / WOC nurses make a difference in patient outcomes. The IOG has been professionally translated into Chinese and is now on sale in the online store (https://wcetn.org/page/OnlineStore).

In placing education at the foremost, the WCET^® traverses many avenues towards fulfilling its mission. Some of these are outlined below.

Enterostomal Therapy Nursing Education Program (ETNEP) and Recognised Education Programs (REP) recognition

We have provided regular updates on both ETNEP and REP programs; there are 56 of these across 17 countries, with over 483 graduates (BullETin 2022;19(1):24–25, BullETin 2021;18(1):8 and BullETin 2020;17(1):12). However, we suspect that the number of nurses who graduate from these programs is underestimated. While we have Memoranda of Understanding (MOU) with seven national ET/WOC Societies/Associations, we often do not receive relevant associations’ annual reports that provide data on their respective programs, including the number of graduates, nor is there any request for certificates. Despite the necessary adaptations due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many programs were still able to run and we cannot thank and congratulate all the teachers, teams and preceptors enough for their work. We wish all graduates the very best in their future careers and we wish future students an enjoyable and worthwhile experience. We also hope those studying and those graduating will become WCET^® members, if that is not already the case.

Twinning program

This has always been very important in developing ETNEPs/REPs. Presently the only twinning program is for a stoma-REP between France (Association Française des Enterostoma-Thérapeutes, AFET) and Morocco. It commenced just before COVID-19 but the future plan is for it to become an ETNEP. We cannot be more proud of the work done by the local teams for making this happen and wish them all the best for the next steps to be undertaken.

Scholarships

The COVID-19 pandemic has reduced scholarship applications. We do hope that this will be over soon, for all countries, allowing more members to benefit.

Congress

As we come to the end of 2022, access of our last WCET^® – Wound Ostomy Continence Nurses (WOCN®) joint congress online recordings will also end. This valuable education is provided by over 60 international speakers, in 50 sessions including workshops, and more than 45 contact hours, so please do not miss this opportunity which ends on the last day of December 2022. As for the last previous biennial WCET^® congresses, the 2022 abstract book is posted under https://wcetn.org/page/PastWCETCongresses. The 2024 Organising and Scientific Committees have started to review and plan our next joint WCET^® – Association of Stoma Care Nurse UK (ASCN UK) Congress; many thanks to their members for their hard work.

We also participate as much as possible in non-WCET^® events, but please remember that this does cost the WCET^® in time and money. We thank our Executive Board members present and past who give their time and knowledge, and we warmly thank all our donors and sponsors. Over the past 2 years these events have been mostly virtual. Thankfully we are now starting to go back to in-person conferences. Dr Elizabeth A Ayello, WCET^® Immediate Past President, was invited to speak at the XVI International Congress at the Associación Mexicana para el Cuidado Integral y Cicatrización de Heridas, A.C. (AMCICHAC) last September in Guadalajara, Mexico. In October the WCET^® has been invited to speak online at the 3rd Scientific Meeting of the Indonesian Wound Ostomy Continence Nurse Association (InWOCNA), held in Jakarta, Indonesia, and as President I visited Turkey for the Nursing Conference at the International Society of University Colon and Rectal Surgeons (ISUCRS). Even when the WCET^® are not involved directly, we are happy to promote other organisation’s events, so please let us know of your upcoming events. Together we are stronger.

WCET^® webinars

The WCET^®, with the impressive work of Education Committee members and especially its taskforce group, has been able to present more than 15 teaching hours, with 25 international prestigious speakers, on 22 different topics related to stoma, wound or continence care, since March 2021. More are to come, so stay tuned.

International Ostomy Guideline (IOG)

We have started to work on the 3rd edition of the WCET® IOG. One of the first steps is to review member comments on the 2nd version and implement suggestions; constant improvement is always our aim in meeting our members’ needs. This of course will rely on our resources, the work and expertise of our skilled volunteers, available funds and the timeframe. We will let you know on the way how things go.

WCET^® Journal

Last but not least, the Journal is a great opportunity to share and learn from other experience and research. All of our past membership surveys have shown how much our members value its content. We were very close to obtaining Medline indexing but we need you to submit more of your research-based articles; we are not giving up and new strategies are already in action. We deeply appreciate the collaboration we have with the International Interprofessional Wound Care Group (IIWCG) and Advances in the Skin & Wound Care Journal. Many thanks to Greg Paull and the Cambridge Media team on developing electronic Spanish and Portuguese translations of the Journal as well as improving access to the Chinese version.

Thank you

We take this opportunity to deeply thank all who have invited us to participate, all who have given their time to speak and/or to a be part of the organisation for these events, and all volunteers for their hard work in supporting our important mission.

We could not end this joint message without thanking, from the bottom of our hearts, all our leaders, teachers, mentors, pioneers, colleagues and friends without whom we would not be where we are today. And may we especially acknowledge all those ET/WOC nurses whom we have lost during the past year. We deeply value their individual and collective still living legacies and all they have done for the WCET^® – may they rest in peace. All our prayers and deepest condolences go to their family and friends. We also want to take the opportunity to address a very special mention to Nancy Faller, who passed away recently. She was the 1998–2002 WCET^® President, the 1996–1998 Vice President and the 1992–1996 Education Chair. She also was the one who created the WCET^® Life Member position. Please refer to this November issue of the BullETin for further acknowledgement of her important contribution to the WCET^®/WOCN^® family.

Whatever efforts we make towards WCET^® goals and objectives, we will always continue to put education centre stage, as it has always been. Education first, for “Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today” – Malcolm X.

Sincerely,

Laurent & Denise

Author(s)

Laurent O Chabal
BSc (CBP), RN, OncPall (Cert), Dip (WH), ET, EAWT
WCET^® President 2022–2026

Denise Hibbert
MSc-WHTR, RGN, BSc, DipHE, ONC, STN, FSSCRS
WCET^® President Elect 2022–2026