Episode 26 (Bonus) EP 26: Mental Health and Well Being with Ostomy Surgery


On this bonus episode of WOCTalk, Janice Beitz and Lynn Mohr share insights from their eye-opening Symposia session at WOCNext® 2023 titled, “Hopeless, Helpless, and Out of Gas: Mental Health and Well Being with Ostomy Surgery.” They discuss mental health issues associated with ostomy surgery across the lifespan and adaptive strategies.

This podcast episode is supported by Convatec. The WOCN® Society does not endorse specific products and services.

Episode Resources:
Click here to find a United Ostomy Associations of America (UOAA) local support group throughout the United States
Click here to download the handout from the session “Hopeless, Helpless, and Out of Gas: Mental Health and Well Being with Ostomy Surgery”
Click here to view the WOCN Society’s Regions and Affiliates contacts and conference information
Click here to view the online Journal of Wound, Ostomy, and Continence Nursing (JWOCN®)

Contact Hours: 1.0

Disclosure:
The planners and faculty for this program have nothing to disclose unless listed on the event website. All potential Conflicts of Interest have been reviewed by the Lead Nurse Planner, Nurse Planner, and Director of Education, and resolved according to the WOCN Society policy to ensure that no bias exists as a result of disclosed relevant financial relationships with Commercial Interest Organizations.

About the Speakers:
Janice Beitz, PhD, RN, CS, CWOCN-AP, WOCNF, FAAN, is a Professor of Nursing for the School of Nursing-Camden at Rutgers University. A native of Philadelphia, Dr. Beitz has over 50 years of nursing experience in acute, sub-acute, and outpatient care settings. She is a graduate of the Germantown Hospital School of Nursing and La Salle, Villanova, and Temple Universities. She is board certified as an adult clinical specialist in medical-surgical nursing, as a nurse of the operating room, as an advanced practice wound, ostomy, continence nurse, and as an adult nurse practitioner. She has taught nursing students at baccalaureate, masters, and doctoral levels. She has consulted as a WOC Advanced Practice Nurse Specialist for the Cooper Health System. She is the Director of the Rutgers University Camden WOCNEP. She has conducted funded research on Content Validation of Pressure Injury Prevention Algorithms and Prioritizing Management Approaches to Stomal and Peristomal Complications. Dr. Beitz is currently conducting funded research on academic workplace bullying and validation of wound care topical therapy algorithms. Dr. Beitz is on the editorial and manuscript reviewer boards of multiple wound care and educational journals.

Dr. Beitz received the WOC Nurse of Distinction and President’s Awards of the Northeast Region of the WOCN Society and, in April 2012, was awarded the Masters of Wound Care Award of the American Professional Wound Care Association. In October 2013, she was inducted as a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing. In 2014, she was selected a Walter Rand Institute Faculty Fellow to study the health problems of Southern New Jersey with a focus on diabetes. In 2015, she was inducted into the National League For Nursing Academy of Nursing Education Fellows. In 2018, she was inducted as a Fellow of the National Academies of Practice for Nursing. She was awarded the Chancellor’s Award for Teaching Excellence at Rutgers University Camden. 2023, Dr. Beitz was inducted as a Fellow into the WOCN Society’s inaugural WOCN Fellows Program. Currently, she is Deputy Editor of the Journal of WOC Nursing.

Lynn Mohr, PhD, APRN, PCNS-BC, CPN, FCNS, is an Associate Professor/Department Chair, Women, Children, Family Nursing at Rush University College of Nursing and serves as Program Director of the Pediatric and Neonatal Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS) Programs. Dr. Mohr holds a PhD in Nursing Science from Rush University, MS from the University of Kansa, BS from South Dakota State, and a diploma in nursing from St. Luke’s School of Nursing. She has been a certified pediatric clinical nurse specialist for over 20 years. Dr. Mohr research emphasis is on the adolescent experience with wound, ostomy and continence issues and speaks and publishes on those topics both professionally and the lay public. She has written several opinion pieces on pediatric care issues some of which have appeared in the Washington Post. She led a team in the Coloplast publication “Teen Life with an Ostomy” and is currently part of group working with the United Ostomy Association of America in developing a website aimed at children/adolescents with ostomies and their families.

Dr. Mohr is an elected Fellow in the Illinois Institute of Medicine, Overseas Fellow in the Royal Academy of Medicine, London England, and a Fellow of the Clinical Nurse Specialist Institute. Dr. Mohr is the past National President of the Society of Pediatric Nursing.