Morning rounds: Depending on where your child is admitted, rounds can include the burn surgery teams and the ICU team. Rounds will be done before or after your child’s dressing change. This is the time when the team discusses progress, addresses any concerns and reviews plans for the day.

Ongoing monitoring and assessment: Our burn nursing teams check in throughout the day, including monitoring vital signs, administering medications and providing care.

Wound care: Wound care is typically performed once a day. This is done at the bedside for children in the PICU and in a dedicated procedure room for children on the acute care unit. Wound care involves removing the old dressings, wiping the wounds with moist gauze to keep the area clean, and applying fresh dressings. This is also when our team will teach you to perform dressing changes you may need to do at home.

Pain control: Our team works with nursing, rehab, pain service and pharmacy teams to prioritize your child’s comfort and adjust pain relief methods as needed. This can often change throughout your child’s stay in the hospital. Sometimes, more pain medication is needed after surgery to help with rehab exercises, or during dressing changes, but less medication is needed when your child is resting. 

Nutritional support: Children with burns need a lot of nutrition to heal well — almost double what they needed before their injury. Our burn team works with our dietitian and nursing teams to ensure your child is meeting these needs, so that their bodies have the nutritional building blocks to heal. Often, our burn team will ask you to keep a record of what your child eats and drinks during the day to make sure they are eating enough. Some children may require the placement of a soft, thin tube through their nose and into their stomach to receive supplemental feeding to meet their needs for a short period of time.

Rehabilitation services: Soon after your child is admitted, they will be evaluated by the physical and occupational therapy teams to develop an individualized treatment plan. This can include stretching and range-of-motion exercises, strengthening and balancing exercises, and creating custom splints for your child. This is a key part of ensuring that your child regains mobility and function after they are burned. 

While our team does their best to manage your child’s pain during exercises and splinting, there can be some discomfort associated with these experiences. We encourage our families to help support their children during these times. To help support you and your child, the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center’s child life and psychology experts provide important coping strategies to work through discomfort during these exercises.

Child psychology: The child psychology team visits every patient and family while admitted, and assists with coping strategies and behavioral techniques to help manage the pain and stress of recovering from a burn injury. The psychology team continues this relationship with you and your child in the outpatient clinic as well.

Child life: The child life specialists help your child cope with their hospitalization through play, developmentally appropriate education and emotional support.

Case management: Case managers are nurses who work on coordinating patient care within the hospital setting. They focus on efficient and effective transitions of care, particularly during discharge planning. Care managers assess patient needs, develop individualized care plans and connect patients with necessary resources.

Family involvement: Family and friends of the child are encouraged to visit during the day, and to be involved in the care process. This fosters emotional support and connection that is healing for both you and your child.

Mid-Atlantic Burn Camp: Twice a year, the Mid-Atlantic Burn Camp hosts children from across the region who have sustained burns. This is a great opportunity for patients to engage in a wide range of activities, including swimming, horseback riding, sports and games.

Before your child is discharged, we ensure that the following criteria are met:

• They are meeting their nutritional needs.
• They have adequate pain control on a regimen that you can give them at home.
• There is a plan for ongoing wound care needs that your family and our team are comfortable with.

At discharge, you will be provided with:

• Ongoing care instructions for your child, including medications and wound care.
• Any wound care supplies that will be needed at home.
• Follow-up appointment information with the burn outpatient clinic and any other necessary appointments.

If you have questions, concerns or need to reschedule your follow-up appointment, please call 1-888-KID-BURN. In case of a life-threatening emergency, call 911.