By Marie-Claude Pelchat | Project Leader
In May 2023, Sunshine Foundation launched its first online training program for Asian burn therapists. This first Asian program has built upon similar projects that we have been carrying out since 2021 for burn therapists in Latin America. The online course “Management of Hand Burns – Introduction and Basic Concepts” held online over a month in May presented 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 54 burn professionals from 10 countries registered for this intensive course, including Indonesia, India, the Philippines, Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia, etc.
Knowledge to spur implementation of change
Throughout this course, participants learned about many important concepts related to burned hand rehabilitation, including how anatomy of the hand is linked to mechanism that cause deformity, and how blind spots in their practice can inadvertently contribute to worsening the problems they are trying to solve in the first place.
When burn therapists are equipped with knowledge to understand “why they do what they do” and “how to do it correctly,” they are empowered to re-examine their practice and implement changes that will benefit their patients. They can discuss with their team members and work together to implement early intervention, they can create protocols to ensure quality care, etc.
“My department has many patients with hand burns, however the concern about complications due to edema is not enough, so after this course I have some plans. For examples: updating my colleagues on hand burns complications and how to prevent them; Apply methods of hand positioning, use of splints and exercises in the acute and wound healing phase....”
- Participant from Vietnam
“With the additional learnings and takeaway points, I can start echoing and teaching it to my trainees, apply it to actual cases. Another offshoot of this training on my end is to develop a protocol specifically burn rehabilitation of the hand.”
- Participant from the Philippines
Your ongoing support makes the production and implementation of these online trainings possible, and allows us to reach out to burn therapists across the region, without limits of time and distance. We hope that you will continue to support our training endeavors as we aim to develop more online trainings for our partners in Asia.
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