Missions in Burn Care

Last month, a team of Physicians for Peace volunteers traveled to Santiago, Dominican Republic to provide burn care training at the local hospital. The ABIQ training program (Atención Básica Inicial del Quemado,) is similar to the US Advanced Burn Life Support (ABLS) training but adapted for latin America. The Advanced Burn Life Support (ABLS) courses provide guidelines in assessment and management of burn patients from the scene of the burn injury through the first 24 hours post-injury. The courses are open to MDs, RNs, LPNs, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, therapists, paramedics, fire service, and other emergency care personnel. 

Dr. Ramon Lopez, Director of Physicians for Peace for the Americas, tells about the success of this training mission:

"On Thursday morning we got into the Burn Unit Dr. Thelma Rosario of the Hospital Regional Universitario Dr. Arturo Grullón. Dr. Ariel Miranda Altamirano and I were received by the Director, Dr. Renata Quintana, and had a tour through the unit. Dr. Miranda was very pleased to see how the Unit is set up. After the visit to the unit, we had a lunch meeting to discuss all the expectations for the ABIQ training and all the details.   >At 3:25 p.m. Lic. Alba Rony landed in Santiago. At night we had a welcome dinner with the President of the Voluntariado Jesus con los Niños, Vilena Comas de Stern and her team. On Friday we started the ABIQ training at the Pontificia Universidad Catolica Madre y Maestra with the presence of Dr. Rosa Morel, the Director of the children's hospital, plus a significant participation of the staff of the Burn Unit which included more than 70 participants. 

The ABIQ training, according to the evaluation of the participants, was very successful and filled all the expectations.  Dr. Quintana and her team want the ABIQ training twice a year and asked to DR. Miranda and I to come on February for other training. The participation of Haitians students was significant and Dr. Miranda is willing to go to Haiti to offer the ABIQ. At the end of the ABIQ, 69 doctors, residents, last year students, and nurses took the exam and were certified with the ABIQ.

During our visit to the Hospital Regional Universitario yesterday, we were welcomed by Dr. Rosa Maria Morel, who is the General Director. She was so excited about the outcome of the ABIQ and also wants us to continue the Physicians for Peace Seeing Clearly mission. In addition, they need urgently some missions for PALS and NALS for both the Hospital and the Burn Unit.

As you know, Dr. Ariel Miranda and I we were the instructors of the ABIQ and Lic. Alba Rony presented the conference of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in Children with Burns and their family."

Burn care training is an important part of Physicians for Peace efforts to improve patient care in under-served regions through international health education. 95% of deaths from burns worldwide occur in lower or middle income countries. You can help support our volunteer medical missions in burn care training and prevention education. Click here to make your donation. 


 

 

More from Susan Palmer at the Burn Consortium Annual meeting:

At the conclusion of the second full day of international health education on pediatric burn care, there was excitement in the air - Samia Jarufe from Ruth Paz in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, said “there is so much information being provided…I’m so glad we brought a team of representatives to this burn consortium meeting…it was worth every penny."

Alba Rony, the psychologist from the burn unit in APROQUEN, Managua, Nicaragua, was leafing through the beautiful, professionally printed, glossy, full-color journal that she had just been handed and said excitedly… “look there I am!...there is my presentation!”  This journal is regularly produced by the Universidad Santa Paula, but the University had devoted this whole edition to burn care and the lectures presented during the Burn Consortium -  “Articulos Especiales Sobre Quemaduras Y Nuevos Medicamentos: Salud, Nutricion, Medicamentos, Tratamientos, Temas Culturales, Documentales Cientificos, Eventos Artisticos” Copies of the journal were provided to all the attendees.

In addition to Physicians for Peace and the many burn consortium partner organizations, many other global health organizations participated, including:

1.       International Society of Burn Injuries (ISBI)

2.       Federation of  Latin American Burns (FELAQ)

3.       USA: Shriner’s Burn Hospital, Houston

4.       Chile: COANIQUEM

5.       Mexico: Hospital Civil de Guadalajara

6.       Argentina: Semillas del Corazon

In response to the recognized needs of addressing the interdisciplinary team approach to burn care, almost one full day of lectures was devoted to the psychosocial aspects of pediatric burn care. Topics included:

1.       The incorporation of the family and the patient in burn rehabilitation

2.       Music Therapy and the social reinsertion of the burned patient

3.       Recognizing the signs of child abuse and neglect

4.       Social rehabilitation of the pediatric burn patient

5.       Pediatric post traumatic stress disorder

6.       Teaching the pediatric burn patients while in the hospital

Tonight will be another business meeting of the Burn Consortium.  They are voting in their first official Board of Governors and approving the policies and procedures developed over this past year.  Excitement is high and everyone is talking about who will be president.  Several names have been bandied about and tonight we'll know for sure!

Susan Palmer, Director of Global Health Programs and Volunteer Development for Physicians for Peace, continues her report from the Burn Consortium Annual meeting taking place this week in Costa Rica:

We started off the day with a video welcome by Ron Sconyers, president and CEO of Physicians for Peace, who was unable to attend in person, which was translated by Dr. Ramon Lopez. Then Dr. Ramon Lopez, as the Director of the Americas from Physicians for Peace, welcomed everyone back, saying PFP looks forward to working with them all in the future, and emphized the commitment by Physicians for Peace to continue supporting the partner organizations in the Burn Consortium. Nyra Gaspar welcomed everyone and said how happy she was to have everyone together in Costa Rica. Nayra thanked PFP and the other local organizations who had helped with putting on this consortium. This was followed by a welcome by the newest partner organization for the burn consortium, Lic. Rocio Valverde, President/Rector of the Universidad Santa Paula.

Then there was a special welcome from the Vice Minister of the office of the Minister of Health for Costa Rica Dra. Ana Morice and Dr. Jose Rojas, Director, Social Security of Costa Rica. Dra Morice officially opened the meeting and thanked the organizers of the burn consortium, in particular the host of this year's meeting, and commited to their continued support for this need. Dr. Rojas said he wants to continue to improve the skills and training of the people who take care of the burn patients in Costa Rica. They have been working with Nyra Gaspar and recognized her and all the tremendous work done by the Asociacion Pro Ayuda al Niño Quemado, APANQ, and then they welcomed all the countries represented.

There were over 100 attendees from all over Central and South America and the Caribbean (Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua and the US) all waiting to learn and exchange information on burn care with their colleagues.  Each of the Partner organizations presented, along with some key speakers from the International Society of Burn Injuries (ISBI). 

The Exhibit Hall was also a success, as attendees spoke with distributors of burn related companies including education, fire department, pharmeceutical etc. This is truly an important event in international health education! 

To learn more about Physicians for Peace's Burn Care Program, visit our web site at www.physiciansforpeace.org/burncare.html

 

Susan Palmer, Director of Global Health Programs and Volunteer Development, gives this report as the annual meeting of the Burn Consortium gets under way in San Jose, Costa Rica. This is a very important initiative in international health education, as health care professionals in Latin America and the Caribbean come together to learn from each other about treating and preventing pediatric burns. We are excited that many clinics and global health organizations are represented this week look forward to a great conference!

Day one:
Susan, Ramon, Teresa Glass, and Genie Lindsey including our new team member Michael Serghiou, along with Professor Susan Guzman, another speaker for the conference, spent the day before the conference at the Universidad Santa Paula presenting multiple sessions (8 hours) to their physical therapist and occupational therapist students.  There were over 60 students attending. 

Day two:
Dr. Alberto Bolgiani (Argentina) and Dr. Christine Serra (Brazil) and Dr. Ariel Miranda (Mexico) presented a day long advanced burn life-support training.  Dr Miranda is the Latin America representative of ISBI.  Over 80 were in attendance.

In the evening we held our first business meeting of the burn consortium.  We had a great turn out. The highlight of the meeting was the signing of the Memorandum of Agreement with the newest partner organization to the burn consortium, the Universidad Santa Paula and Instituto de Dessarrollo Integral. This was followed by a discussion on nominations.  The voting will be tomorrow to elect the board officers for the burn consortium.

I met with Michael Serghiou, who is with Shriner's in Houston, and have recruited him to join the PFP burn rehab team.  He has been invited to come back with Teresa Glass in October to teach burn splinting.

Tomorrow the Vice Minister as representative for the Minister will be attending.

I've met with Genie and Alba and have set the date for the burn psych mission to Santiago, Dominican Republic for the second week of December.

One highlight is that El Salvador has sent three reps last year they had sent none.

Too many stories to tell! More later...

Susan

Our Senior Director of Global Health Programs, Mary Kwasniewski, is currently traveling in the Dominican Republic with Stefanie Schaeffer, a winner of NBC's "The Apprentice." She sends this report:

"Its one thing to hear about what groups can accomplish together but another entirely to see it first hand and be overcome with emotion." - Both Stefanie and her mother were reduced to tears at least once today while visiting the cleanest and most up to date facilities... here's to the week ahead and the need we hope to meet... 

The Dominican Republic is full of amazing people - this evening we were hosted by the Volunteer Group - Jesus for the Children - a group of ladies dedicated to bringing proper and deserved health care to the nation's "niños."  They are dedicated when there is no sense of hope and determined when all odds are against them. Most recently they have outfitted and rebuilt the Burn Unit at the Pediatric Hospital in Santiago, and now they are busy looking at rebuilding a special oncology unit for children!  They will not stop, and I believe they will do it!  With partners like this group we know that Physicians for Peace has come to help meet the right need at the right time.  We are very lucky!  

To find out more about the Burn Care Program, visit www.physiciansforpeace.org/burncare.html

You can also get information about the Burn Consortium, a network of burn care clinics in Latin America and the Caribbean at www.quemaduras.org

Pediatric burns are a serious global health problem -  More school-aged children in third world countries die each year from burns than from malaria and tuberculosis. Our international health programs work to train burn nurses in the poorest countries by sending volunteer medical missions to help children get the care they need. 

You can make a donation to health care charity or find out how to donate medical supplies on our web site at www.physiciansforpeace.org