Jackie Rowlands¹, Bethany Farley²

¹ Julian Burton Burns Trust, Suite 357, 33 Pirie Street, Adelaide, SA 5000, jackie@burnstrust.com.au
² Julian Burton Burns Trust, Suite 357, 33 Pirie Street, Adelaide, SA 5000, bethany@burnstrust.com.au

Children aged 0-5 years old are overrepresented in the total hospital admissions for paediatric burn injuries. The Julian Burton Burns Trust has developed a burns prevention and first aid education program, BurnSafe Junior, to tackle this high incidence of burn injuries. This program aims to reduce the incidence and impact of burn injuries through influencing behavioural change and through raising hazard awareness. Structured pre-school learning environments provide an existing structure and curriculum ideal for safety promotion programs.

BurnSafe Junior has been developed to be an educationally fun and interactive program designed to educate children and their families in South Australia about the incidence of burn injury, offer practical prevention strategies and burns first aid.

BurnSafe Junior sessions have been developed to meet the National Quality Framework and National Quality Standards for Early Childhood Education along with the Early Years Learning Framework. Sessions encourage play-based, structured and guided learning based on the age and pre-school establishment.

The BurnSafe Junior program has been piloted across Adelaide early learning centres and is now ready to be launched in June 2016. Pilot centres have engaged in feedback and evaluation sessions with the centre directors, educational leader and group leaders of the 3-5 year olds.  In addition to the BurnSafe Junior sessions educators are provided with resources to continue the programs learnings with a further planning booklet and resource borrow pack.

This presentation will provide the early feedback and evidence from BurnSafe Junior as a safety program for 3-5 year olds and their families.

Key Words

Prevention, Education, Burns First Aid

Biography

As the Community Education Manager for the Julian Burton Burns Trust I develop and manage all aspects of our burns prevention and first aid education community initiatives. All our programs are aimed to reduce the incidence and impact of burn injury in Australia through community awareness activities.