Burn Therapist

Welcome to the first site dedicated to the work and educational endeavors of Occupational and Physical Therapists whom specialize in treating and rehabilitating individuals whom have suffered a burn injury. This web site is dedicated to the work of Burn Occupational & Physical Therapists in an effort to develop outcome based research and clinical improvements for all burn survivors. We are committed to fostering collaborative networking relationships among burn therapists as well as developing clinical research, treatment innovations and improvement in service delivery and care at local, national and international levels. We also highlight the achievements of Burn Occupational & Physical Therapists as part of the American Burn Association's Occupational & Physical Therapist Special Interest Group. We are a resource for therapist driven research and collaboration to provide the best treatment outcomes for the patients that we serve.

Updates and Information

New Appointments for the OT/PT SIG July 2008

I believe that the 40th ABA was a fantastic event and the SIG was both energizing and resourceful. I would like to thank Ingrid for all of her diligent efforts to bring us a truly remarkable and memorable SIG celebrating the history of where we, as clinicians have been throughout the development of the ABA. Ingrid's leadership will certainly be missed this year. As we move forward and looking into 2009, we have two new individuals that have stepped up to the challenge and will be leading the OT/PT SIG over the next few years. I want to formally announce my esteemed vice chairs for the upcoming 2009 meeting and beyond:

Daphne A. Perry, PT from the Intermountain Burn Center in Salt Lake City, UT will be taking over for Travis (whom has been deployed to Iraq) and will be the Chair for the 2010 meeting. Daphne graduated from Middlebury College in 1983 with a BA in Geochemistry – something totally different than burn care. She then became smarter and returned to school in Utah at University of Utah, eventually graduating with a BS in physical therapy in 1993. One of her last internships was in burn care on a whim and she was hooked. She has been in burn care ever since, 15 years now, and is one of the senior members of the burn therapy team at the University Health Care Burn Center in Salt Lake City, UT.

Daphne has also been a member of the QM team from 1996-2000 and the became the CCCE of the department. She has been a CI since 1998 mentoring students and new staff members. She is a member of the American Burn Association and has attended several annual meetings along the way. She has also been involved in a few studies that were published in the JBCR. She has presented at the SIG in conjunction with Ingrid Parry, PT on Cultural Competency. She is an adjunct faculty of Provo College, a PTA school in Provo, UT, teaching a course every summer on burn care and rehabilitation. She has been a speaker at yearly outreach conferences held at the University of Utah Burn Center for health care personnel from our intermountain area., 2006 and 2007.
Lisa Forbes-Duchart, MSc, OT Reg(MB) has also agreed to be part of the team and will be the Chair for the 2011 meeting. Congratulations to Lisa for being the first Canadian OT to Chair the SIG and only the second Canadian ever selected to this position. Lisa graduated from the University of Manitoba with a Bachelor of Medical Rehabilitation (Occupational Therapy) in 1992, and completed her Master of Science (Rehabilitation) in 2008. She has worked at the Winnipeg Health Sciences Centre for 15 years, mostly in pediatric and adult burn care. Presently she is the Clinical Specialist for Burns Occupational Therapy where her duties include direct patient care, research, program development/evaluation, and staff education/mentoring.

Lisa has completed formal research in the areas of burn scar assessment and sexuality. She has presented several papers and posters at professional conferences, and has published two peer reviewed papers and 1 book chapter. Lisa is a member of two ABA committees, the Aftercare Reintegration Committee and the Knothe Burn Committee. She is the director of Firefighters Burn Camp Mamawi, and is on the planning committees of Winnipeg’s local Adult Burn Survivor Conference and Young Adult Burn Retreat.

Future updates on the 2009 SIG meeting will be forthcoming next month.

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Clinical Burn Pearls (Formally Splint of the Quarter)

Check out the new and updated Clinical Burn Pearls page. You can submit your own splint design, adaptive device or clinical hints and tips to share the knowledge and ideas with your fellow therapists all over the world! Add to the knowledge base and help each of us to enhance and develop our own clinical practice.

July's pearl is an ingenious application used to manage early management of an upper extremity amputation.

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Calendar of Events

Find out the most up to date news on local, national and international events involving burn care and rehabilitation. Post your hospitals' burn related lectures and offerings to reach all members of the burn community at large.

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Burn Job Links

Check out the new Burn Job Links Page - links to job opportunities looking for Burn OT's & PT's. You can also post your job listing, volunteer and / or activity links to this page as well.

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BURN ENGINE WEB SITE

Bernadette Nedelec BSc OT (c) erg. PhD, Assistant Professor, McGill University, and her team have created a discussion forum to allow OTs and PTs to be able to 1) post topics of interest and get feedback, 2) to be able to have discussions surrounding topics that other therapists may be interested in, or 3) simply to post information that may be interesting to other forum members. This site has been open to Canadian OTs and PTs for a while and now, in 2006, it is being extended to the USA and it will also regularly highlight peer-reviewed articles providing evidence to support burn survivor rehabilitation. If any OTs or PTs want to register as a member of the discussion forum all they need to do is to click on Register on the top menu and it will walk them through the registration process.

This site is another free opportunity for all burn therapists to network and collaborate on operations and research related to burn rehabilitation. Thanks again to Bernadette and her team for organizing this site and allowing all of us to be involved. Click here to go to the Burn Engine.

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Burn Therapist Educational Grant Travel Opportunities

Have you ever wanted to see how another burn facility treats burn patients and how different Burn OT's and PT's treat similar burn wounds and scars? Have you ever meet other OT's & PT's at the ABA meeting or other regional meetings and thought of visiting their facility? Have you ever been invited to visit another burn facility and thought, "this would be a great opportunity but how could I afford it?"

If you answered yes to any of these questions, then I know of a way to help make this happen and the American Burn Association will pay you a stipend to do it! All you need is a sponsorship from a burn facility - so take a risk, meet some new OT's & PT's and make a connection to go anywhere in the USA.

Click here to find out more about the American Burn Associations' Educational Exchange Program.