This is a part of the Hot Topic podcast series from the Model Systems Knowledge Translation Center on Employment After Burn Injury. Nicole G. Gibran, MD, researcher, discusses Increasing Awareness About People With Burn Injuries.

NICOLE GIBRAN: I would love to increase awareness, uh, in the general public, about burn injuries and the importance of patients’, uh, recovery. One of the, uh, things that I often think about is that I often don’t see patients with burn injuries out in the community. I don’t know whether or not that’s because… they have a restricted, a self-restricted access. We have, uh, a patient who has been very involved with our outreach program. And she’s a woman who was injured when she was a high school graduate just uh, getting ready to start her life, go to college, she fell into a fire when she was at a graduation party. And she told a story that is very typical of what our patients experience. She says that she was… It was a hot summer day, she had her car at a… gas station, and she was wearing shorts and a tank top, and another customer came up to her and told her that she should be ashamed of herself for going out into public dressed like she was, exposing her scars to the world. Would like to eradicate that attitude. We would like to educate the public about how patients with burn injuries are not contagious. They can be normal, functioning members of the community, and we want to eradicate the idea that they need to stay indoors and hide. Our burn patients have such a great opportunity to contribute, and we want to maximize that.

Visit https://msktc.org/burn and get the answers you need from experts who conduct innovative and high-quality research, provide patient care, and work to improve the health and overall quality of life for people with burn injury. That’s https://msktc.org/burn.