On the evening of Wednesday 17 June, Pakenham Fire Station hosted a unique burns management training session with an integrated multi-agency focus.
The presentation titled 'Burns and their pre-hospital care' was delivered by Yvonne Singer who is the Victorian Burns Program Coordinator for the Victorian Adult Burns Service.
Yvonne is based at the Alfred Hospital's Burns Unit, and comes with a list of credentials that support her position as one of Australia's leading specialist in relation to burns education.
The evening's session covered topics such as Victorian burn statistics, trends and 'at risk' demographics, the different categories of burns, awareness of the importance of initial assessment, estimation of Total Body Surface Area percent (TBSA) and emergency management that first responders can make. Some case studies were also discussed.
The night was attended by Pakenham Fire Brigade members alongside 11 other brigades from District 8's Cardinia Group (eg. Beaconsfield, Berwick, Bunyip, Gembrook, Koo Wee Rup, Nar Nar Goon, Officer, Pakenham Upper, Tynong, Upper Beaconsfield). In addition to CFA, there were other local supporting emergency services, such as Ambulance Victoria (AV Beaconsfield) and State Emergency Service (Pakenham) in attendance.
This was another positive example of interoperability between agencies within the Victorian emergency management sector; supporting the alignment to Emergency Management Victoria's (EMV) approach to an integrated, comprehensive and 'all-hazards, all-agencies' environment.
Also at hand was District 8 Operations Officer Peter Lucas. Lukey was in attendance in his capacity as a CFA Peer. The CFA Peer Support program is available to all members to provide an initial point of contact for support and guidance. Each peer is a CFA member (career staff or volunteer) who understands the pressures of the job. The CFA Member Assistance Program is also available for any CFA member if and when required.
The night was coordinated by Station Officer (SO) James Wong, with assistance from Pakenham A Platoon (LFF Amanda Lake and QFF Alistair LeServe). SO Wong has had previous experience in burns management and training, having previously completed an Emergency Management of Severe Burns course conducted at the Alfred Hospital and run by the Australian New Zealand Burns Association (ANZBA). And, like many others, SO Wong has experienced the unfortunate circumstances that face a burn patient.
SO Wong's motivation for this type of training is to share this crucial information amongst all members, to provide some guidance to members in the event that they ever respond to a burn patient, and to highlight the importance of communicating a vital handover to AV.
At the conclusion of the presentation, SO Wong presented Yvonne Singer with a CFA Certificate of Appreciation in recognition of her donation of time and expertise to present to Cardinia Group. The evening was also finished off with some socialising and eating five varieties of cheesecake.
SO Wong would like to acknowledge Andrew Harris and Michael Corzelius (both from Pakenham Fire Briagde) for supporting this initiative and managing responses.
More information can be obtained from www.vicburns.org.au, or contact Station Officer James Wong at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Author: James Wong