Return to School as an Outcome Measure After a Burn Injury

Measuring the impact of a burns school reintegration programme on the time taken to return to school: A multi-disciplinary team intervention for children returning to school after a significant burn injury

“…This not only highlights the benefits of the SRP but also suggests that the improvements to the school reintegration package made as a result of feedback, may have had additional benefits. The average time to return to school in our audit population was large in comparison to previous literature, with previous literature finding a mean time of return to school between 7.4 and 10.5 days after discharge [1,13]. One explanation for this, may relate to the relatively small sample in our cohort compared to previous studies in the area.…”

“…One explanation for this, may relate to the relatively small sample in our cohort compared to previous studies in the area. Another possible explanation for these differences may be that in some previous studies [1,13] the sample of patients used, on average, had greater length of hospital stay (23.7 and 30.8 days). This could suggest these patients were kept in hospital for longer until they get to a point where they are in better health and therefore are more likely to return to school quicker.…”

“…Previous studies have highlighted the importance of a successful school reintegration for children following a burn injury as return to school has been documented as a critical milestone in the post burn injury recovery period [13][14][15][16].…”

“…Several studies have suggested that a shorter time to school re-entry often leads to a more successful social integration for the child [1,12,13].…”

“…Out of 325 patients, only 43 of these were classed as students/schoolaged for which time to return to school was calculated. Staley et al [13] reported a mean time for returning to school of 7.4 days after hospital discharge for a sample of burn injured children. This study incorporated 34 patients aged 6-16 years, with an average TBSA burn of 25.9% (range 2-85%) and an average hospital stay of 30.8 days (range 3-198 days).…”