Frequently Asked Questions AAWC Wound Care Professionals

AAWC’s mission is to build a collaborative community to facilitate optimal care for the millions who suffer with wounds. Our organization encourages everyone involved in the care and healing of wounds, including patients themselves, to join us in our mission.

AAWC’s primary focus is on education, and the education you receive through various Association Benefits may help prepare you for certification. However, AAWC does not offer certification. In fact, it would be a conflict of interest to offer both certification and the education to become certified within the same organization. AAWC does not endorse any particular certifying body, but we are happy to supply you with information about your options. Various certification programs can be found at our one-stop-shop, the “Advancing the Practice” Campaign website. Click here for certification options.

3. How many members does AAWC have, and who are they?

AAWC has almost 1700 members as of June 2006, and that number is growing every year. Our members are clinicians members from all disciplines, including nurses, physicians, physical therapists, podiatrists, nutritionists, and others. We have student members, who represent a wide variety of fields. Many members hold industry memberships, representing many leading corporations in the field of wound care. We also have retired professionals as members, as well as patients and their lay-caregivers. Members of AAWC are primarily from the United States, but we are privileged to have an increasing amount of international members. We strongly encourage anyone involved in wound care to join our community. AAWC is a great resource to everyone involved in wound care.

You’ll feel welcomed here, and you will experience a broader membership and educational experience with AAWC than with any other wound care association. That means that you will have the ability to learn more, network more, and gain greater perspective and knowledge about the best practices in wound care. We believe in the multidisciplinary approach to care, one that includes the entire healthcare team, including patients and their lay-caregivers. This means everyone working together toward common goals and objectives based on the latest advances and knowledge in wound care technology and practice, while keeping compassion for the human experience at the forefront of our minds.

Of course, your membership is valuable to us because we all learn best from one another’s first hand, personal experiences and varied depths of knowledge. We value our members and exist to serve them, and they help us chart the course of AAWC’s future. AAWC does not exclude anyone based on discipline, credentialing status, practice setting, location or type of wound. This provides increased abilities for mentorship and networking – learning and sharing.

We offer various benefits to our members that are very valuable and theirs alone, but also we are able to do so much for the broader wound care community through careful planning and application of our finances. In fact, our main source of revenue comes from modest membership dues. While we exist to serve our members directly first, we certainly realize the great deal of benefit our members will reap in the long term by expanding our reach and doing our part to develop the wound care profession. We believe so much in community, that we have joined with outside organizations and campaigns to help advance the field of wound care and to strengthen relationships among all groups. We could not manage to do all of this without our members’ support. Membership in AAWC not only helps you with your personal and professional goals, but also helps us in our mission to build community, which in turn advances our practice. For further rationale from our members, read our members’ testimonials.

AAWC believes in building the wound care community, and that community obviously extends to those who are not members of AAWC. We are positioned in the wound care community as inclusive and seen by others as giving and selfless. Our AAWC Task Forces focus on activities that benefit the wound care public, such as informational brochures, articles, teaching tools and evidence-based algorithms that are available to anyone, most often free of charge.

Another example of our commitment to collaboration is our membership in various outside organizations.

One example is the North American Wound Care Council. This group consists of organizations such as the Wound Healing Society, the Wound Ostomy Continence Nurses Society, the Canadian Association for Wound Care, the Canadian Association of Enterostomal Therapy and a newly forming Mexican Association. This group was formed on the basis of collaboration, giving the Associations the ability to mobilize quickly to address and respond to broad issues that could both positively and negatively impact wound care professionals and their patients in North America.
AAWC offers its assistance to the Peripheral Arterial Disease (PAD) Campaign through membership in the PAD Coalition, a group formed to spread awareness of PAD.
We are an active member of the Alliance of Wound Care Stakeholders, a group that addresses governmental and policy issues in the United States.
AAWC is also a Collaborating Organization (CO) of the National Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel (NPUAP), a group that provides multidisciplinary leadership for improved patient outcomes in pressure ulcer prevention and management.
AAWC gives back to the entire wound care community, regardless of membership status, through the free resource of the Advancing the Practice website, www.advancingthepractice.org, an industry-supported initiative to advance the practice of wound care.
AAWC is currently designing a program, the World Wound Care Alliance, which will allow multidisciplinary teams of healthcare professionals and educators to travel to underprivileged areas of North America and the world. Teams will be equipped with educational tool kits and teach basic wound care practice to elevate the level of wound care education around the globe where it is needed most.

7. Are my Membership Dues tax-deductible?

Individual member dues are tax deductible on Schedule A of your personal tax return, but the deduction is limited to two percent of your adjusted gross income. If your employer pays the dues, the employer will be able to deduct those dues under the itemized title of “Dues and Subscriptions.” This information has been provided for your information. Please check with your tax advisor on whether this information is accurate for your personal situation.

From the day you join, it will take a maximum of 4-5 weeks to receive your welcome package. Your welcome package will include your certificate of membership, which is suitable for framing, as well as a membership card for your wallet or rolodex. Your welcome letter, included with your membership certificate, will include information on when you can expect your first AAWC quarterly newsletter, which will depend on the time of the year that you join. After the members-only area of the AAWC web site is complete, members will have access after their request for membership is processed. You will receive details about how to log in to this special area with your welcome letter. Within 6-8 weeks, your free journals, Ostomy/Wound Management and WOUNDS, will begin to arrive every month. All Members can immediately begin using other benefits, such as the Scholarship Program. Membership discounts are also immediately available, including discounts on our Educational Image Series, Chronic Wound Care 3rd Edition, and to the Annual Symposium on Advanced Wound Care (SAWC).

Your membership begins the day you complete the online application process, which includes the successful processing of your credit card information. If you pay by mail, your membership will be activated on the day the AAWC Business Office enters your complete application. You are eligible for AAWC benefits for a full year, starting the day the membership is processed.

The AAWC Scholarship Program is open to members only. Anyone who is a member in good standing can apply for an award in the areas research, education and/or travel and exchange programs. AAWC has given tens of thousands of dollars back to members over the years, and we increase the amount we give back to members as we can afford to do so. For more information on our Annual Scholarship Program, click here.

We are currently working on this area of our web site and hope to launch it soon. You will have access to a number of membership benefits in the member only area, including newsletters, directories, scholarship program, and more! All Members will receive an announcement via email and/or through the mail when the members-only area is open.

You may transfer your discount to another member of your facility if you cannot attend the Symposium. Please contact the Business Office at 866-AAWC-999, and our Membership Liaison will help you.

AAWC and HMP Communications feel fortunate and enthusiastic about our continued partnership, established in 1995. Through an Association Management Contract, HMP provides administrative support to the organization by providing an Association Liaison to run the day to day operations of AAWC and manage routine projects. However, HMP has no control over the direction of the organization or its decisions. Outside of a management fee, HMP receives no portion of AAWC’s revenues, which are held in completely separate bank accounts in a different bank.

AAWC is governed by its Bylaws and decisions are made by its Board of Directors, who are Association Leaders elected by the Membership of AAWC. Additionally, AAWC has a full time Executive Director that provides leadership, association management expertise and oversight of the Management Firm to ensure operations are running smoothly.

The journals Ostomy/Wound Management and WOUNDS are owned and published by HMP Communications. AAWC has adopted these premier wound care journals as the two official organization journals. The journals are peer-reviewed and provide exceptional educational wound care information to the wound care community.

The Symposium on Advanced Wound Care (SAWC) is also owned by HMP Communications. AAWC receives no revenue from this conference, but through partnership with HMP, AAWC Members receive a 20% discount. AAWC has adopted this annual conference as its “Annual Meeting Site” and holds its Annual Board of Directors Meeting, Membership Meeting and Forum Sessions there. AAWC endorses this meeting as its official conference, because it is simply the best and largest multidisciplinary wound care meeting in the United States. Many meeting attendees would agree, if he/she could only attend one wound care meeting per year, it would be SAWC – not only for its educational value, but also for its atmosphere.

Yes! We encourage members to help us expand our community. Please be sure that the member you recruit places your name on his/her application. If he/she joins through our secure website, there is a spot for listing the recruiter’s name on the online form. For each member you recruit, you will be entered into a drawing for a free membership renewal for both you and your recruit or a free Symposium on Advanced Wound Care (SAWC) registration for you (or as a gift to someone else). Winners are selected on or around January 3rd of every year.

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