• R Robert, M Berton, P Moore, L Murphy, W Meyer, P Blakeney, and D Herndon.
• Department of Family Services, Shriners Burns Institute, Galveston, Texas, USA.
• Burns. 1997 Feb 1;23(1):50-4.

AbstractStatements by caregivers can be beneficial to paediatric burn patients, facilitating their psychological adaptation. However, the concerns of the burned child are not always obvious, and caregivers may flounder, not knowing how to elicit the concerns of the patient. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether universal concerns of the postburn survivor can be detected through one type of psychological assessment tool, a sentence completion task. Sixty paediatric burn survivors, ages 6-19, were administered a 30-item Incomplete Sentences measure. Five major aspects of postburn life were identified and proscribed the following descriptive labels: (1) preoccupation with health; (2) the struggle for internal acceptance; (3) reconstruction of one's life map; (4) changing relationships; and (5) redefining the world. These five dimensions of postburn life are discussed, as well as applications for each.

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