Lynne’s interest in burns began when she spent a month in the burns unit at the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children in Camperdown in 1979 as part of the paediatric nursing certificate course. What appealed was the challenge provided by burn injuries, the impact they have on all body systems and the team approach to care which in 1979 was led by Martin Glasson, Phil Thompson and Hugh Martin. This interest took a firm hold when Lynne joined the School of Nursing in 1980 and took on the role of burns educator. It was a steep learning curve and strong partnerships formed between the nursing team led by Kathy Donohue and medical and allied health teams. It was a time of great change in wound care with new products, improved pain relief with use of entenox and extension of the multidisciplinary team.
Lynne attended the first of many ANZBA conferences in 1981 and joined the Association in 1984. In 1990 she completed the first ABLS burns course run by members of the American Burns Association at the Perth conference and in 1991 joined Ian Leitch, Hugh Martin, Di Mandeno, Di Dickson, Jan Dark, Michael Muller and Fiona Wood as founding members of the Australasian burns course which became known as EMSB in 1996. The success of EMSB is a source of great pride to Lynne and she still enjoys helping out on the rare occasions when there is a shortage of coordinators.
Lynne moved to a nursing management role at Camperdown in 1987 and in 1996 became NUM of the rehabilitation ward at the New Children’s Hospital Westmead. For the past 10 years she has been manager of a state-wide transition program that aims to improve the systems and process for young people with chronic illnesses moving from paediatric to adult health services. Throughout this time she has continued her involvement with EMSB and enjoyed the camaraderie of those who share her passion for this course and for improving the care of patients with burns.