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- Jeena Elizabeth JoseBurn AmbassadorRolePhysical Therapist and Clinical InstructorLocationCaliforniaFun Facts
Jeena, her husband, and two kids came to the United States in 2008 from Abu Dhabi. Her older son is in college, and her younger son is in second grade. Jeena’s life revolves around her family and work. Her hobbies are music, dancing, painting, cooking, and travel. She does miss her family, pets, and home in India, but still plans trips to visit when they are able.
Jeena’s journey with burn
Jeena has been a Physical Therapist since 2002. She began her career working in India and parts of the Middle East and started to work in California in 2011. She has held different roles as a physical therapy assistant, physical therapist, educator, documentation auditor, and Director of Rehabilitation in all rehabilitation settings. She holds several certifications in her practice, from interests that grab her attention to new research and courses that can improve her knowledge and ability to serve her patients and their families more efficiently. Her current position is as a Physical Therapist working with various types of patient groups and diagnoses at Loma Linda Inpatient Rehabilitation.
Jeena considers herself lucky enough to have worked with some great clinicians throughout her career. With their guidance she has been able to contribute towards setting up rehabilitation clinics, SCI treatment centers, and brain injury education and training centers for the pediatric population. She now caters to all medical diagnoses and feels she learns something every day. She particularly enjoys working with SCI, TBI, and BURNS patients. With such life-changing injuries, the patient and the entire family rely on guidance from their medical professionals. Jeena hopes to carry her knowledge to educate the next generation of therapists and to parts of the world like her hometown in India, where resources such as these are invaluable.
Why does Jeena want to be an ambassador?
Jeena treats all her patients as family, so she is always on the lookout for the best educational and treatment options available, which is why she always recommends MSKTC to her patients and their caregivers. It is occasionally difficult to find new and updated research-based resources in one spot, but the resources with MSKTC are easy to navigate and the language is easy to understand. She particularly favors topics like the Wheelchair-Parts Management courses and the quizzes that test user understanding. This is particularly useful for her current work setting due to the vast amount of material she must cover in her brief time with a patient. She confidently recommends MSKTC to her patients as it helps them learn, review, and reinforce quality information relevant to them and their families. She especially appreciates how the info-comics in SCI, TBI, and BURNS can grab the attention of younger pediatric patients. As a robotics specialist, she was happy to see the most recent exoskeleton technology that is discussed and reviewed further on this website.
What has Jeena done as an ambassador?
Jeena shares the MSKTC resources with her doctors and patients and has encouraged patients to share their resources with their peer groups for increased visibility. All resources presented on SCI, TBI, and BURNS are indeed the questions and concerns of most patients and caregivers as they continue their journey of healing and rehabilitation. She sees the MSKTC resources continuing to serve a valuable role within her organization and in venues where she exercises her professional expertise.
- Megan KinzlerBurn AmbassadorRoleSpeech-Language PathologistLocationCaliforniaFun Facts
Megan is a Pittsburgh native who now lives in the Bay Area of California. When she isn’t working, she enjoys reading, hiking, and singing. Understanding that laughter serves as its own form of medicine, Megan brings her sense of humor with her wherever she goes. She has a hard time sitting still and enjoys trying out new hobbies like woodworking and traveling as much as possible!
Megan’s Burn Injury Journey
While Megan has experience working in burn units, she feels her journey with burn injury (BI) truly started when she cared for a patient with over 44% total body surface area, with 3rd-degree burns to his face. His injury took his vision, and he needed multiple facial skin grafts and flaps, all of which severely impacted his ability to speak and swallow. This patient showed Megan how crucial the Speech-Language Pathology (SLP) role is to the BI population and how often their services may be overlooked for treatment and recovery. She began to better collaborate with her Physical/Occupational Therapists, attended burn unit rounds, and read about burns off the clock to maximize the care she could provide. Through her work, Megan developed a passion to help not only patients but help lead the SLP field of research and advocacy for the burn injury population.
Why does Megan think people should consider referring to the MSKTC resources?
Given her high involvement with patients with TBI, SCI, and Burn Injury, Megan finds the plethora of MSKTC’s resources to be directly relevant and beneficial for her patients. This user-friendly, free, research-based information is helpful for patients from all different backgrounds and is so easily accessible. She also loves how they have options for English and Spanish ready at the click of a button. Megan shares these resources with patients, families, and colleagues to better promote advocacy, healing, and care for her patients.
Why does Megan want to be an MSKTC ambassador?
Megan would like to be an MSKTC ambassador to promote available resources, improve patient care, improve patients’ confidence in returning home after the acute care journey has ended, and promote the role of the SLP in this patient population. She would also like to continue expanding her knowledge of burn injuries to best treat burn survivors and understand their medical complexities both in the acute stages and beyond.
What has Megan done as an MSKTC ambassador?
Megan has provided suggestions to MSKTC on how to further improve handouts and resources involving orofacial burns and stretching. She provides MSKTC resources to patients, shares handouts with coworkers, and works to increase awareness of all that MSKTC has to offer regarding burn injury, TBI, and SCI. She is currently working on ways to help advocate for the SLP role in burn care and feels as though these resources are helpful to patients and help her improve her knowledge and insight into the burn survivor’s journey through care and beyond.