Vilma D’Mello – Fernandes has more than 30 years of nursing experience. She has a BSN and MSN degrees from S.N.D.T University Mumbai, India. She has been in the USA since 1990.

During this time she has worked at Atlantic Medical Center, Lynnfield Massachusetts on the Medical – Surgical unit and Surgical ICU. She also was an Assistant Professor at Salem State University, Salem, MA.

She moved to California in 2001 and worked in Kaiser Permanente Hospital in Fremont, CA as a Nurse Educator.

In 2004 she moved to Virginia and worked as a Nurse Educational Consultant for GlobeMed Resources, a company which recruited nurses from overseas.

Vilma completed her education in Wound Ostomy, Continence and Foot care at UVA in 2009 and is Board Certified in Wound and Ostomy Nursing.

She has been on the Wound Care Team at VCU Health Systems since March 2010. Vilma opened up the first nurse-managed full-time ostomy clinic at VCUHS in May 2016. In this clinic, she assesses pre- and post-operative patients with an ostomy and manages enterocutaneous fistulae and leaking feeding tubes as well as drains.