Phyllis A. Bonham, PhD, RN, MSN, CWOCN Associate Professor Director of Wound Care Education Program Medical University of South Carolina College of Nursing 99 Jonathan Lucas Street PO Box 250160 Charleston, SC 29425 Telephone: (843) 792-4630 Fax: (843) 792-2104 bonhamp@musc.edu

Phyllis Bonham, PhD, RN, MSN, CWOCN is an Associate Professor and Director of the Wound Care Education Program at the College of Nursing. Dr. Bonham received a nursing diploma in 1966 from Missouri Baptist Hospital in St. Louis, Missouri and a Bachelor of Science Degree in Nursing in l973 from St. Louis University. She completed the Harrisburg School of Enterostomal Therapy in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in l974. In 1980 she obtained a Master of Science Degree in Nursing from Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and in 2005 received a PhD in Nursing Science from the Medical University of South Carolina. Dr. Bonham has 42 years in nursing practice, 34 years experience in Wound Ostomy Continence Nursing and is board certified in Wound, Ostomy and Continence Nursing.

Combining clinical practice, education and management, she has served as an administrator, supervisor, director of staff development, consultant, and educator in a variety of settings including hospitals, home health care, hospice, outpatient, long-term care, and university settings in St. Louis, Milwaukee and Charleston. Since 1984 she has maintained an independent practice as a Wound, Ostomy and Continence Nurse Specialist providing direct care, education, and consultation services to several hospitals and home health care agencies in Charleston.

Dr. Bonham developed and implemented the Wound Care Education Program at the College of Nursing in 1994, which is accredited by the Wound Ostomy Continence Nurses Society (WOCN) to prepare post-baccalaureate nurses for specialty practice in wound care nursing. The program has over 330 graduates including nurses from throughout the U.S., as well as international nurses. 

Dr. Bonham is the President Elect of the WOCN Society. She is a current member of WOCN, ANA, and Sigma Theta Tau. In 1999, Dr. Bonham was named ET Nurse of the Year by the Southeast Region of WOCN and was the honoree for the 2007 Scholarship award for the Southeast WOCN Region. Dr. Bonham received the 2001  Research Manuscript Award and the 2007 Clinical Practice Manuscript Award from the Journal of Wound Ostomy Continence Nursing (JWOCN).  Dr. Bonham was elected a Distinguished Practitioner in the National Academies of Practice in Nursing in 2006 and selected for the Palmetto Gold Top 100 Nurses' Award for Nursing Excellence in South Carolina for 2007.

Dr. Bonham is committed to evidence-based practice and served as Co-chair of the Diabetic Review Committee (1998-1999), which was a collaborative work of WOCN and the Wound Healing Society (WHS) for the development of provisional guidelines for chronic wounds: arterial, diabetic, pressure, and venous wounds. Dr. Bonham served on the WOCN Guidelines Committee (1999-04, 2006-08) that developed evidence-based guidelines for management of pressure wounds, and lower-extremity arterial, venous, and neuropathic disease, which were accepted by the National Guideline Clearing House. Dr. Bonham was one of the two primary authors of the Guideline for Management of Wounds in Patients with Lower Extremity Arterial Disease that was published in 2002 and recently updated for publication in 2008.

Dr. Bonham is a consulting editor for the JWOCN and a member of the regional editorial board for ADVANCE for Nurses. Dr. Bonham has presented numerous lectures, workshops, and seminars at local, regional, national, and international conferences on management of acute/chronic wounds and other topics related to professional nursing.  Dr. Bonham is published in several peer-reviewed professional journals including: AACN Clinical Issues, Advances in Nursing Theory, Advances in Skin & Wound Care, Journal of Clinical Nursing, Journal of Wound, Ostomy, Continence Nursing, Journal of Enterostomal Therapy, Nursing2003, and Ostomy Wound Management. Dr. Bonham's research interests include lower extremity arterial disease (LEAD) and noninvasive vascular assessment.