WOCN Annual Conference 2026: What Wound Care NPs Should Attend

What Is WOCN and Why Does the Annual Conference Matter?

The Wound, Ostomy and Continence Nurses Society (WOCN) is the professional organization for nurses who specialize in wound care, ostomy care, and continence management. Founded in 1968, WOCN represents the largest concentration of certified wound care nurses in the United States and sets the clinical practice standards that WOC nursing programs, employers, and credentialing bodies reference nationwide.

The WOCN Annual Conference is the organization's flagship event. It draws wound care nurses, ostomy specialists, continence clinicians, nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists, and nursing educators from across the country. If you hold a WOC nursing certification or are working toward one, this is the conference built specifically for your scope of practice.

Unlike broader wound care events that serve a mixed audience of physicians, surgeons, PTs, and industry stakeholders, the WOCN conference is nursing-first. The sessions, the workshops, the CE credit structure, and the networking are all designed around the clinical and professional realities of WOC nursing practice. That distinction matters when you are deciding where to invest your conference budget for the year.

2026 Conference Details

The WOCN 2026 Annual Conference was held in Nashville, Tennessee in June 2026. If you missed this year's event, watch for the 2027 conference announcement — WOCN typically publishes dates and location roughly 9-12 months in advance through their website at wocn.org.

Past conferences have rotated among major cities with strong convention infrastructure. Attendance typically runs in the range of 1,500-2,500 participants, making it large enough to offer a full slate of sessions and a meaningful exhibit hall but small enough that you can actually find and talk to the people you came to meet.

Key Wound Care Tracks and Sessions

The WOCN conference organizes its programming across the three pillars of WOC nursing — wound, ostomy, and continence — with additional tracks covering professional development, leadership, and emerging clinical topics. For wound care NPs and certified wound care nurses, the wound-focused sessions are the primary draw, but several cross-cutting tracks are worth your time as well.

Advanced wound management. Clinical sessions covering pressure injury prevention and treatment, diabetic foot ulcer management, venous leg ulcer protocols, surgical wound complications, and atypical wounds. These sessions are taught by WOC nurses and nurse practitioners who practice at the bedside, which means the clinical guidance is grounded in nursing scope of practice rather than surgical or physician-centric models.

Evidence-based practice and clinical guidelines. WOCN is the organization behind many of the clinical practice guidelines that wound care nurses reference daily. Conference sessions on guideline development, evidence translation, and best practice implementation give attendees direct access to the clinicians and researchers authoring those guidelines.

Wound care documentation and quality improvement. Sessions addressing documentation standards, outcome measurement, quality metrics, and data-driven practice improvement. If your documentation workflow needs tightening — whether for Medicare compliance or internal quality tracking — these sessions provide frameworks built specifically for nursing documentation models.

Telehealth and technology in WOC nursing. As wound care delivery models expand beyond traditional wound centers, WOCN programming has followed. Expect sessions on telehealth wound assessments, remote patient monitoring, wound imaging technology, and the operational considerations of delivering WOC nursing care across multiple care settings including home health, SNFs, and outpatient clinics.

Skin substitute and advanced therapeutics updates. Clinical sessions on the latest evidence for skin substitutes, negative pressure wound therapy, cellular and tissue-based products, and other advanced wound care modalities. These sessions are particularly valuable for NPs who need to stay current on treatment options and their clinical evidence base as CMS policies continue to evolve.

CE and CME Credits

Continuing education is one of the strongest reasons to attend WOCN. The conference typically offers a substantial number of nursing CE contact hours — often 20 or more across the full event — accredited through recognized nursing CE providers.

CE credits at WOCN apply to:

Registered Nurses (RNs) and Advanced Practice Registered Nurses (APRNs) — including nurse practitioners and clinical nurse specialists
Licensed Practical Nurses (LPNs) in most states
WOC nursing certification renewal — CE hours earned at the conference count directly toward CWCN, CWON, CWOCN, and CCCN renewal requirements

For NPs who need both nursing CE and pharmacology hours, check the specific session accreditation details as they are published. Some advanced clinical sessions may carry pharmacology CE credit, which can help meet NP renewal requirements that mandate a certain number of pharmacology hours.

Pre-conference workshops typically carry additional CE credit beyond the main conference sessions and are often the highest-value hours of the trip from a learning density standpoint.

Certification Prep Workshops

One of the features that distinguishes WOCN from every other wound care conference is the certification preparation programming. The WOCN Certification Board (WOCNCB) administers the WOC nursing specialty certifications, and the annual conference is the single best place to prepare for them.

CWCN — Certified Wound Care Nurse. Prep workshops cover the wound care knowledge domains tested on the CWCN exam, including wound assessment, treatment selection, wound healing physiology, and patient education. If you are planning to sit for the CWCN, attending the prep workshop before your exam date gives you structured review led by certified WOC nurses who understand both the clinical content and the exam format.

CWON — Certified Wound Ostomy Nurse. For nurses pursuing the combined wound and ostomy certification, the CWON prep covers both wound care and ostomy management domains. The dual-specialty scope is demanding, and the workshop format provides focused review that self-study materials alone do not replicate.

CWOCN — Certified Wound Ostomy Continence Nurse. The triple-specialty certification is the most comprehensive WOC credential. Prep workshops address all three clinical domains — wound, ostomy, and continence — and are structured for nurses who are completing or have completed a WOCN-accredited education program.

These prep workshops typically require separate registration and have limited capacity. If certification prep is a primary reason you are attending, register for the workshop early. They fill up, and the alternative is studying alone with a textbook and hoping you covered the right material.

Exhibit Hall Highlights

The WOCN exhibit hall is more focused than what you find at a broader conference like SAWC. The vendors exhibiting at WOCN are specifically targeting WOC nursing professionals, which means the product demonstrations, marketing materials, and sales conversations are calibrated to nursing practice rather than physician or surgical audiences.

Categories you will typically find on the exhibit floor:

Wound care products and dressings — manufacturers of foam dressings, hydrogels, alginates, silver-containing products, and compression therapy systems
Skin substitutes and advanced biologics — companies offering cellular and tissue-based products for chronic wound management
Wound imaging and assessment technology — digital wound measurement tools, photography protocols, and wound documentation platforms
Ostomy supplies and accessories — pouching systems, skin barriers, and patient education materials
Continence management products — incontinence-associated dermatitis prevention, catheter care systems, and continence assessment tools
Education and publishing — WOC nursing textbooks, CE providers, and online education platforms

The exhibit hall is also where you can talk to representatives from WOC nursing education programs if you are considering formal specialty education, and where product companies offer hands-on demonstrations that are hard to replicate in a catalog or webinar.

Networking Opportunities

The WOCN conference concentrates the largest annual gathering of certified wound care nurses in one location. That density creates networking opportunities that no other wound care event can match for nurses specifically.

Specialty-focused roundtables and discussion groups. WOCN typically offers small-group sessions organized by clinical specialty, practice setting, or professional topic. A roundtable on wound care in long-term care facilities or home health settings puts you in a room with nurses facing the same challenges you face daily.

WOCN chapter and regional meetings. If your state or region has an active WOCN chapter, the annual conference is where chapter leaders connect, plan regional events, and recruit new members. Getting involved at the chapter level creates a local peer network that persists long after the conference ends.

Mentorship and career development. WOCN programming often includes mentorship matching, career development sessions, and leadership workshops. For newer WOC nurses or those transitioning from general practice into wound care, these sessions provide guidance from experienced practitioners who have navigated the same career path.

Poster sessions. The research poster presentations at WOCN are nursing-authored, which means the study designs, outcomes, and practice implications are directly relevant to nursing practice. Walking the posters with intention — looking for research on topics relevant to your patient population and practice setting — is one of the most underutilized networking strategies at any conference.

Who Should Attend

The WOCN conference delivers the most value for clinicians whose professional identity and practice are rooted in WOC nursing.

Certified wound care nurses (CWCN, CWON, CWOCN). This is your professional home conference. The CE credits count directly toward certification renewal, the clinical content is built for your scope of practice, and the peer network is unmatched.

Nurses pursuing WOC certification. The certification prep workshops alone justify the trip if you are planning to sit for a WOCNCB exam in the coming year. Add the CE hours and networking, and attending before your exam is one of the highest-ROI decisions you can make for your career.

Wound care nurse practitioners. NPs delivering wound care get clinical content calibrated to advanced nursing practice rather than physician practice. If your daily work involves wound assessment, treatment planning, and patient management within a nursing scope, WOCN speaks your professional language more precisely than physician-oriented conferences.

Nursing educators and clinical leaders. If you train or supervise wound care nurses, the conference provides both clinical updates to keep your teaching current and professional development content on leadership, education methods, and program development.

WOCN vs. SAWC: Choosing the Right Conference

Both WOCN and SAWC are excellent wound care conferences. They serve different audiences and emphasize different aspects of wound care practice.

WOCN is nursing-centric. The programming, CE structure, certification prep, and networking are built for WOC nurses. If your credential has "nurse" in the title and your scope of practice is defined by nursing boards, WOCN is your primary conference. The clinical content addresses wound care through a nursing practice lens — assessment, patient education, care coordination, documentation — rather than a surgical or procedural lens.

SAWC is broader and more interdisciplinary. SAWC draws physicians, surgeons, NPs, PAs, PTs, practice owners, billers, and technology companies. The clinical content covers advanced therapeutics, surgical wound management, and research that spans disciplines. The SAWC Fall 2026 event adds a new Mobile Wound Care Track that addresses operational and billing topics relevant to any practice model.

If you can attend one conference: choose based on your role. Certified WOC nurses and nurses pursuing certification should prioritize WOCN. Practice owners, NPs running independent practices, and clinicians who want the broadest clinical and operational content should prioritize SAWC. Billers and operations staff get more value from SAWC's exhibit hall and billing-focused sessions.

If you can attend two: WOCN plus SAWC Fall covers both your nursing professional development and the broader wound care industry landscape. That combination is hard to beat for a wound care NP who wants to stay current on both clinical nursing practice and practice operations. See our full wound care conference calendar for 2026-2027 to plan both trips.

Start Planning for 2027

The WOCN 2026 conference has concluded, but the 2027 event will be announced in the coming months. If you missed Nashville this year, start planning now — set a reminder to check wocn.org in fall 2026 for dates, location, and early registration.

In the meantime, WOCN offers webinars, online CE courses, and regional chapter events throughout the year. Membership provides discounted conference registration when the 2027 event opens, along with access to clinical practice guidelines, position statements, and the JWOCN journal.

For nurses weighing their conference options this fall, our complete wound care conference calendar covers every major event through early 2027, and our SAWC Fall 2026 preview breaks down the October event in Las Vegas.