Clowning Around for a Cause
As a little girl Barbara Cooper-Grant dreamed of being a mother and a nurse, so after the second of her two children reached driving age Barbara returned to school and began working on her nursing degree. After having watched her father's recovery from open-heart surgery Barbara thought she wanted to work in cardiology, but after a rotation in burn care as a student nurse, she had a change of heart.
"Forgive the pun, but burn nursing gets under your skin," laughed Cooper-Grant. "But it's not for everyone. You either love it or you hate it." It doesn't take long for a nurse to recognize that they will either ask for a transfer in about two weeks, or they're hooked for life, says Cooper-Grant, who worked for 14 years as a burn nurse in the Joseph M. Still Burn Center. Because of a back injury she left patient care and today serves as the Director of Education, Student Services and Respiratory Therapy at Doctors Hospital.
"Burn care is hard," says Cooper-Grant. "You have to perform procedures for the patient that are helpful, but painful. Nurses must be diligent in keeping the patient free from infection; this requires wearing a mask, hairpiece, gown, sterile gloves and shoe covers. It gets very hot and monotonous in the patient's room."
But the rewards far outweigh the difficulties, says Cooper-Grant. "Taking care of burn patients is like watching a roller coaster ride. Often they are very critical, and then get better, and then they may have a setback that takes them to critical status again. It's a rewarding feeling to know that you got the patient through your shift. And when you help them go from victim to survivor - well, no words define it. It's a phenomenal feeling."
Not long after becoming a burn nurse Cooper-Grant saw the need to help with the Burn Center's Burn Outreach program. This included using the mascot, Burnie, to teach burn prevention to elementary students, as well as teaching thermal, chemical and electrical burn care to first responders, industry personnel and nursing students.
During this time, Cooper-Grant saw a need to join forces with local fire departments in teaching fire prevention through the professional clown program. She went to clown school and created the character Tickles. "It required a lot of patience to be a clown," says Cooper-Grant. "It took hours to get made-up and dressed, and then you had to put up with children who would cry or pull on you. But it was a lot of fun and the kids really responded well to our message."
In 1994 Cooper-Grant began volunteering with the Southeastern Firefighters Burn Foundation and in 1996 became the president of the Board of Directors. Cooper-Grant's fingerprints are still seen throughout the Foundation today. Under her leadership, the Shirley Badke Burn Retreat was founded. Her efforts to create a facility for burn families to stay for free while visiting their loved ones led to her winning the Frist Humanitarian Award, created by HCA Healthcare to honor outstanding individuals for their humanitarian and volunteer activities.
In recent years, she has been a faithful volunteer at the annual Rodeo Nights fundraiser helping manage the contestants' parking lot, painting faces for the little buckaroos, and pitching in to help wherever she is needed. Barbara Cooper-Grant, RN, BSN, MS embodies the volunteer spirit of the Southeastern Firefighters Burn Foundation and we are grateful for her continued friendship and support of the Foundation. Like most of our volunteers, she does it so quickly and quietly we seldom have time to thank her.