Related Experiment Video
Updated: Oct 10, 2025
Author Spotlight: A Multi-Depth Porcine Model for Comprehensive Study of Burn Injuries and Healing Processes
Published on: February 23, 2024
Impact of COVID-19 and containment measures on burn care: A qualitative exploratory study
Vikash Ranjan Keshri1, Margaret Peden2, Tanu Jain3
1The George Institute for Global Health, New Delhi, India; The George Institute for Global Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.
Background:
Burn care in India is limited by multiple constraints. The COVID-19 pandemic and the containment measures restricted access to non-COVID emergency conditions, including burns. The aim of this study was to explore the impact of the pandemic on burn care in India.
Methods:
Using the qualitative exploratory methods, we conducted in-depth interviews (IDI) with plastic and general surgeons representing burn units from across India. Participants were selected purposively to ensure representation and diversity and the sample size was guided by thematic saturation. Thematic analysis was undertaken adopting an inductive coding using NVivo 12 Pro.
Results:
19 participants from diverse geographic locations and provider types were interviewed. Three major emerging themes were, change in patient and burn injury characteristics; health system barriers, adaptation, and challenges; and lessons and emerging recommendations for policy and practice. There was change in patient load, risk factors, and distribution of burns. The emergency services were intermittently disrupted, the routine and surgical services were rationally curtailed, follow-up and rehabilitation services were most affected. Measures like telemedicine and decentralising burn services emerged as the most important lesson.
Conclusions:
The ongoing pandemic has compounded the challenges for burns care in India. Urgent action is required to prioritise targeted prevention, emergency transport, decentralise service delivery, and harnessing technology for ensuring resilience in burns services.
Related Concept Videos
01:22Burn Injuries
The damage results in the death of skin cells, which can lead to a massive loss of fluid. Dehydration, electrolyte imbalance, and renal and circulatory failure follow, which can be fatal. Burn patients are treated with intravenous fluids to offset...
01:23Types of Biopharmaceutical Studies: Controlled and Non-Controlled Approaches
Non-controlled studies, commonly employed for initial exploration, lack a control group, rendering them susceptible to biases and external influences. In contrast,...
01:22Healthcare Associated Infections II: Preventive Measures
The best practices for preventing healthcare-associated infections include hand hygiene, patient risk...
01:30Current Trends in Nursing II
01:15Techniques of therapeutic communication I: Active Listening, Sharing Observations, Validation, and Using Touch
Therapeutic communication is not the same as social interaction. Social interaction has no goal or purpose and consists of casual information sharing, whereas therapeutic communication has a plan or purpose for the conversation. Therapeutic...
01:19Respiratory Assessment: Purpose and Indications
Objectives and Importance:
The primary goal of respiratory assessment is to evaluate patients at early risk of clinical deterioration. Since respiratory distress often precedes other signs of declining health, breathing patterns and sounds become a...