Throughout history, seafarers have been exposed to potential thermal injuries during naval warfare; however, injury prevention, including advances in personal protective equipment, has saved lives. Thankfully, burn injuries have decreased over time, which has resulted in a significant clinical skills gap. Ships with only Role 1 (no surgical capability) assets have worse outcomes after burn injury compared to those with Role 2 (surgical capability) assets.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOccupational therapy has been integral to the holistic recovery of soldiers since its origin. The positive psychosocial and physiological effects of occupation-based interventions, fundamental to the profession, have long justified its relevance to the military. As such, occupational therapy has been written into US Army doctrine as an integral component of the Combat and Operational Stress Control (COSC) program.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWhile occupation began as the central concept of occupational therapy at the dawn of the profession, the use of occupation throughout the therapy process, including assessment, has wavered in recent decades. Occupation is defined as meaningful and purposeful activities that individuals do to occupy their time and attention. The use of occupation-based assessments is vital to establishing care with an occupational focus.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Inhalation injury is a major risk factor for mortality in burn patients via 3 primary mechanisms: airway edema and obstruction, hypoxemic respiratory failure, and pneumonia. Currently, the mainstay of treatment is supportive care to include early intubation, lung-protective or high-frequency-percussive mechanical ventilation, nebulized heparin, and aggressive pulmonary toilet. Despite these treatments, a subset of these patients progress to severe acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) for which rescue options are limited.
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