Nursing Management |
8 |
of the Burn-Injured Person |
Judy Knighton
8.1Introduction
The repertoire of skills needed to provide care to the burn-injured patient includes comprehensive clinical assessment and monitoring, pain management, wound care and psychosocial support. This chapter is focused on providing the nurse with valuable information for the provision of appropriate nursing care.
8.2Knowledge Base
8.2.1General Definition and Description
8.2.1.1 Incidence
•Annually, an estimated 450,000 people seek care for burns in the USA [1, 2].
•Approximately 45,000 require hospitalisation, greater than half of whom (25,000) receive care in specialised burn units or centres [1, 2].
•Survival rate, for hospitalised patients, is around 96 %.
•Children 4 years of age and younger and adults over the age of 55 form the largest group of fatalities.
•In North America and Europe, 70 % of burn survivors are male and 30 % female.
J. Knighton, RN, MScN
Ross Tilley Burn Centre, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, 2075 Bayview Ave. D7-14, Toronto, ON, M4N 3M5, Canada e-mail: judy.knighton@sunnybrook.ca
M.G. Jeschke et al. (eds.), Burn Care and Treatment, |
111 |
DOI 10.1007/978-3-7091-1133-8_8, © Springer-Verlag Wien 2013 |
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