Rosemary Kendall¹, Heather Gale-Maclaren¹, Patrick Sloan²

¹Fiona Stanley Hospital, ²Edith Cowan University

Abstract:

Western Australia’s 2.6 million km2  means that rural and remote patients may have to travel vast distances to access burn care.  This means long transfer times, potentially inadequate treatment, the isolation of rural and remote clinicians and poor outcomes for patients. When this was identified in 1991, the need for upskilling regional health services in acute management of burn injury became evident.  As a result, in the early 1990s, the Burn Management Education Programme (BMP) was born.   Over the years, and in the spirit of continuous improvement, the programme has grown and developed to provide rural clinicians with professional learning in emergency management, acute burn care, and now after-care and rehabilitation.  The contributions of Allied Health as part of the multi-disciplinary team was well established within the BMP but as a result of the increasing need for rural therapists to improve their skill level and provide comprehensive care, Occupational Therapy and Physiotherapy have developed specific education programmes to assist regional therapists in providing care that can be equivalent to that provided to patients in the metropolitan area.

Biography:

Bio to come