By Marie-Claude Pelchat | Project Leader
The loss of hand function after burns can have an immense impact on the lives of burn patients, limiting their ability to return to their normal lives as students, parent, workers, etc. This is why burn therapists must understand how to manage hand burns to prevent debilitating problems or deformities, and this is why since 2021, we have been rolling out series of online courses on this topic.
In 2021, we launched the “Management of Hand Burns – Introduction and Basic Concepts” online course, to present knowledge and concepts to establish the base of rehabilitation of the burned hand, with an emphasis on developing clinical reasoning of the therapist, to better identify and prioritize problems and their cause, and thus establish clear treatment goals. A total of 65 burn professionals from 10 Latin America country registered for this intensive course.
This year, we followed up with the online course “Management of Hand Burns – Intervention Strategies,” which examined in more details different types of intervention to provide therapists with key knowledge and principles to choose the right interventions, and decide on the right frequency and the right intensity when developing an individualized rehabilitation strategy to prevent or correct problems like scar contracture and hand deformities. A total of 34 burn professionals from 10 Latin America countries participated in this training.
Over two years, we have seen the tremendous progress made by all the participants. First, the huge difference between pre-test and post-test scores clearly demonstrate the impact of the course in terms of knowledge acquisition. Therapists have gained a better understanding of principles and the rationales for many things that they do in their clinical practice. But most importantly, the training has transformed their clinical practice, in that they adjusted or corrected rehabilitation methods that weren’t necessarily the best (ex: performing exercises the wrong way), and they have also become aware that due to limits of knowledge, they were overlooking problems that can have a serious impact on hand functions (ex: not prioritizing edema control).
Trainings can have a huge impact on improving burn rehabilitation when therapists actively implement the knowledge and skills they have learned. In the end, their patients benefit through better outcomes. Your support of our training efforts makes this possible and allows us to continue sharing our burn rehabilitation expertise with therapists around the world.
GlobalGiving’s Bous Day will be held on July 20, 2022. During this event, $400,000 will be available in Matching Funds. While fund remains, your donation of up to $1,000 (per unique donor per organization) can be matched as follows:
We invite you to mark the date on your calendar and be sure to support our re-opened project Give Burn Survivors Access to Rehabilitation on that special to make your donation go even further!
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