Over 100 third year Rankin School of Nursing students had the opportunity to learn about burn care from a specialist in the field, Dr. Jack Rasmussen, who is also a StFX graduate.
The three medical surgical nursing classes of Rankin School faculty Marie Arnott, Daphne Connolly and Dr. Heather Helpard came together March 8th and were impressed and thrilled Prof. Arnott says to learn about actual practice and how Dr. Rasmussen reconstructs patients who have had extensive burns.
Dr. Rasmussen’s work centres on plastic surgery for critical care complex burn patients. He is a major burn expert and leader for the Maritime provinces and Canada overall.
He spoke to the students about how important nursing is in assessing the severity of a burn injury, determining how much of the skin has been affected. He spoke too about wound care, and explained for burns in the ICU in Halifax, the fluids given are monitored entirely by RNs and their clinical assessment is so essential.
Dr. Rasmussen is a StFX alumnus and is the son of longtime StFX human kinetics professor Dr. Roy Rasmussen, who also teaches nursing students anatomy and physiology.
He has guest lectured on burn care at StFX since 2018, when he started at the QE2 Hospital in this specialty. For this most recent lecture, Prof. Arnott says Dr. Rasmussen travelled to Antigonish to deliver the morning guest lecture after being on call as the Intensivst in the Burn Unit at the QE2.
She says he has unique training as both a plastic surgeon and a critical care physician and between his internship, residency and fellowship, he was in post-secondary education for about 15 years, starting at StFX. “He follows major burn patients holistically, caring for each as a human being first, from the time they are admitted in emergency care to their recovery and discharge home,” she says.
“As busy as he is with his patients and staff, he took time to teach our StFX nursing students including the specific care he is so dedicated to delivering.”
