The Burn Treatment Center at UI Hospitals and Clinics is the only verified burn center in Iowa and serves as a Midwest referral site for the care of children and adults facing a host of burn and trauma-related injuries.
This weekend the remarkable Kid Captain featured at the Iowa football game is a child from Illinois who suffered extensive third-degree burns after falling into a fire pit. Jackie Heinle, RN, nurse manager in the burn treatment center, talks about the UI Burn Treatment Center:
The UI Burn Treatment Center is the state’s only verified burn center. What does this mean?
That's something we're very proud of. We worked hard to gain the recognition as a center of excellence in the nation. That means we're one of the top burn centers in the nation to receive that verification.
Why is the UI Burn Treatment Center unique in Iowa and the Midwest?
We are the only verified burn center in the state and when we look at the whole geographic area, the burn center covers a huge area including Minnesota, Illinois, Nebraska, Kansas, and any of the surrounding Midwest states. So, recognized as a center of excellence, this is where these people need to come.
Are there different degrees of burns?
We look at different degrees of burns and how they present.
- A first degree burn is like a sunburn—it's red and it's painful
- With a second degree burn you get a blister
- A third degree burn is the severest type of injury and requires immediate medical attention
How are burns treated?
The first thing to do is cool the burn injury with warm water, and then contact your local physician or come into the emergency room. They will put forward a protocol that allows them to give the best care for that patient. Cover the wound with a dry blanket, dry gauze, or plastic wrap, and bring the patient in to receive care.
What is the healing process like for someone who has suffered a burn?
Probably one of the hardest, and most important things we do is wash them every day with soap and water to decrease the chance of getting an infection. It's probably the hardest part for our patients. Our patients also have to have a lot of calories and protein to help the wound heal. They also have to get up and move around so they can have the best functional out come possible. Family involvement is very important with this and we encourage a family-centered care here.
Can you tell us about the school re-entry program?
This program helps our children after they sustain an injury and are healed. It helps them get back into their school environment and their peer groups. Nurses and other team members go to the school the child attended. They do some prevention programs—perhaps do a puppet show—with age group of the child. We know this helps the child move back into the school system and do a better job at school work. It's very, very helpful for our children to do that.
After patients are discharged from the Burn Treatment Center, do they need on-going treatment for their burns?
Many of our patients go to a rehabilitation center because they need lots of work to keep flexible, to keep stretching, wound management, those kinds of things. What we have to remember is that when burns heal, they never go away—they simply change their injury from a wound to a life-are life-long issues.
What are some of the most common causes of burns that you see, especially in children?
Right now we're seeing a lot of children sustain an injury when they fall into a campfire or a fire pit, just as our Kid Captain who is featured at the Iowa football game did. Even though that seems to be a very innocent area, children just happen to get over there and they fall in.
The second leading cause of injuries is scald injuries, unprotected cooking utensils in the kitchen, hot water in the bathroom, those kinds of things.
What tips do you have for families to prevent burns?
The key thing for children is keep them under your supervision at all times. Those little ones can just wander away very quickly and then we've lost sight of them.
Fire Prevention Week is coming up. Keep smoke detectors functional, make sure that everybody has a plan in case their house catches on fire, and really, just know that prevention can easily be obtained if we just use common sense and keep safe.
If someone suffers a burn, what is the best thing to do?
If there's a flame injury, you've got to stop, drop, and roll. As soon as you've stopped, dropped, and rolled, you need to—if you're a child—you need to get up, make contact with the parent, say I've been hurt. The child should then be taken to a local physician care or your emergency room for care. The same with adults—stop, drop, and roll; remove the burning substance; and please seek medical attention. |
