Ernest Grant, who earned his master’s degree in UNCG’s School of Nursing, planned on working at the N.C. Jaycee Burn Center, part of UNC Hospitals, for a year or two. Twenty nine years later, he’s still on fire about his job there.
“What better place to work?” asks Ernest, MSN ‘93, coordinator for the Burn Center’s Burn Prevention and Community Outreach program. “I have the best job in the world. As a nurse I can see that I make a difference in someone’s life every day.”
One of the most rewarding parts of my job is when we get people in who say I spoke to their kid’s class, and that kid remained calm and actually saved the lives of his family.
His job takes him around the state, talking to children, training firefighters, doctors, nurses and military medics to prevent and treat burns.
Burns are the second leading injury facing our soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq, Ernest says, “but a lot of them have never seen a burn. My job is to help make them more comfortable treating burns.”
Other populations vulnerable to burns are the elderly and children.
The elderly may have illnesses such as arthritis that make it more difficult for them to prevent and escape fires, Ernest says. They also have thinner skin.
Ernest often works with children, visiting schools and training fire safety educators. Sparky the Firedog has become his alter-ego.
“Children are curious, their nervous systems are developing,” he says. “They want to imitate what we adults do, and they are too young to understand consequences. But we do know that if we start teaching kids about fire safety at an early age, it will become second nature to them. They are like little sponges.”
One issue Ernest hopes to address is young children’s fear of firefighters, which may cause them to hide from rescuers. “They see a firefighter in full turnout gear and they see a monster,” he says. “And he sounds a little like Darth Vadar.”
The burn prevention curriculum introduces kids to fully-suited firefighters to alleviate their fears.
“One of the most rewarding parts of my job is when we get people in who say I spoke to their kid’s class,” Ernest says, “and that kid remained calm and actually saved the lives of his family.”
Photography by Chris English, University Relations
