Burn Fellowship Goals

OVERALL EDUCATIONAL GOALS

At the end of the fellowship, the successful fellow will be able to competently manage any burn victim, take care of major acute and chronic wounds and have understanding of how to run a burn/wound unit and conduct research within the field.

Management of Burn and Skin Loss Diseases

The fellow will be proficient in initial resuscitation and high level intensive care needed in the severely burned patient population. The fellow will be familiar with the highest level technology used in modern day intensive care. The fellow will be technically adept in managing burn patients from acute management, intermediate excision and grafting and management of chronic burn healing issues. The fellow will have strong knowledge and experience in managing patients with non thermal related skin loss issues such as chemical burns, Steven Johnson’s syndrome and other skin related diseases requiring burn and wound unit admission and care. He or she will gain valuable experience in special anatomic areas of burn and skin loss such as face, hand and genital involvement.

Chronic Wound Management

The fellow will gain strong experience in outpatient management and after care of this patient population. The fellow will have full understanding of the medical management of these wounds including nutrition, blood flow, infection, diabetes and other reasons for non or slow healing wounds. The fellow will gain valuable exposure to advanced medical treatment of these wounds including new drugs used for local treatment, advanced dressing methods and cleaning of the wounds, negative pressure wound management, hyperbaric oxygen and other means of medical treatment. The fellow will become proficient in surgical management of these wounds including advanced debridement, skin grafts, various flap covering of these wounds including advanced flaps, complex tissue flaps and free flaps. The fellow will have good knowledge of skin and wound anatomy, pathophysiology and the processes involved with skin grafts and wound healing. At the end of the fellowship, the successful fellow will be able to competently manage chronic and complex wounds. The fellow will gain strong experience in management of acute and chronic wounds including those related to complex deep tissue infections, arterial venous compromise, tissue loss due to trauma, and non-healing wounds due to other causes.

Administration Experience

The fellow will gain insight and experience into how a burn and wound care unit operates including administrative structure, national verifications, relationship with institutional and hospital officials and leadership needed to successfully run such a unit.

The fellow will be introduced to appropriate billing and coding for this patient population. The fellow will get full understanding of the importance of multidisciplinary care and will gain experience in running multidisciplinary meetings and creating protocols for other disciplines involved in the care of these patients.

The fellow will be introduced to the medical/legal issues associated with this patient population.

Research and Practice Improvement Participation

The fellow will participate in advanced research both clinical and bench and will be taught how to navigate the medical literature and how to conduct research in this area. The fellow will learn how to present research projects in the form of abstracts, posters or presentations.

The fellow will have full knowledge of the most commonly used national and local guidelines, protocols and other best practices. The fellow will participate in practice improvement projects resulting in new protocols, standing orders or treatment algorithms.