Elevating critical burn care at QEII
Dr. Jack Rasmussen has been named the recipient of the Medical Post Innovative Practice Award for his transformative work in critical burn care. Dr. Rasmussen’s unique journey and dedication have profoundly impacted the lives of critically ill patients at the QEII Health Sciences Centre in Halifax.
Dr. Rasmussen developed an interest in burn care during his residency in plastics and reconstructive surgery that was strengthened during his fellowship in critical care medicine at Dalhousie. He also gained specialized experience in burn care at the Ross Tilley Burn Centre in Toronto.
He joined the staff in 2018. Dr. Rasmussen has become an expert in treating complex surgical and traumatic wounds, as well as in preventing and treating pressure injuries. His expertise has led to improvements in patient care, including the implementation of updated clinical best practices and innovative photographic wound documentation.
Medical Post Awards
The Medical Post Awards recognize Canadian doctors and are selected by panels of physician juries. Coverage of this year’s recipients is here: The 2025 Medical Post Awards winners.
Dr. Rasmussen also makes sure he is available to his colleagues at any time to discuss patient care, and his guidance has led to a dramatic improvement in both mortality and morbidity for critically ill patients. He has also championed educational initiatives, developed pre-printed order sets and established burn care nursing champions to ensure his expertise is shared throughout the institution.
One case, in particular, highlights his impact. Following a house fire, Dr. Rasmussen provided care to a patient who suffered burns to nearly 90% of their body. His innovative use of extracorporeal life support and his compassionate care of both the patient and his grieving wife led to a successful outcome, providing an incredible morale boost for the care team.
Dr. Rasmussen’s ability to provide world-class care has elevated the QEII’s critical care practice and has made him an invaluable asset to the team. His commitment to his patients and his passion for exceptional care make him a deserving recipient of the Innovative Practice Award.
Judge quote: “Dr. Jack Rasmussen is recognized for creating a unique and highly effective burn clinic service. His innovative approach has redefined patient care, improving both recovery and quality of life for burn patients. For this vision and impact, he is awarded the Innovative Practice Award.”
- Q&A
Q: Given burnout and the healthcare system struggling, what do you see about the value of recognition in the physician community?
I think burnout seems to be system-wide these days throughout healthcare, unfortunately, and a lot of it has to do with what feels like an increased demand, with limited resources.
To have recognition from the Medical Post Awards reminds folks who maybe feel like their work’s not valued, or that they’re, grinding away without a lot of recognition, that people out there are paying attention, that their work makes a difference, that what they’re doing is helping people and this is a nice way to remind them of that and recognize the work that’s being done.
Q: Talk about your community—tell us how the Medical Post Awards helps the community?
Burn care’s challenging. These are people who face life-threatening injuries. The road to recovery can be a long one, often years and it may be incomplete. People may never get back to where they were beforehand.
Because of that, burn teams, which are often multidisciplinary, also have a really hard time providing care for these patients insofar as it's demanding, it may often feel thankless. At the end of the day, we are doing our best to make the best out of a difficult situation, and so I think for these teams who are often working with very challenging cases and patients going through the worst time of their life to have some recognition of the work, not just that I do, but the team does, is incredibly valuable, because this is very much, in burn care, a team sport. It takes all of us playing our individual roles to really contribute to a patient having the best possible outcome.
Q: What inspires you about the healthcare profession? What motivates you to keep doing what you do?
I don’t have any family in healthcare per se but my father worked for 50 years as a professor, teaching healthcare-related topics and so I got an early introduction.
I’m fortunate that I kind of wandered into healthcare and am very much lucky to be here. Despite the day-to-day challenges, I’m cognizant that I’m incredibly privileged to get to do what I do and to work with a team who really supports (me) and our patient population. It’s incredible to see just how much everyone rises to the challenge in healthcare.
I’ve been fortunate to come back and take over as the burn unit director here in Halifax. We’ve assembled a really organized team that functions at a high level, despite being a relatively small centre. To see my clinical burn nurse, my physiotherapist, my occupational therapist, our psychologist, our dietitians, all these kind of team members, all working together, despite limited resources, to provide care that rivals what we would see at a larger hospital with a bigger burn program has been really inspiring for me to keep pushing myself as well, to make sure that I’m doing my end to maintain really good care.
Q: Tell us about a challenge you face leading change in healthcare?
I think the biggest challenge I’ve experienced, again speaking to the fact that it’s a relatively small centre here in Halifax, is that there’s always some degree of inertia when it comes to changing practice or moving things forward.
I think back to a time in my early practice when I had been working for about a year or so, and we had an incredibly sick burn patient come in who needed a level of care to essentially allow him to survive and to continue healing that (hadn’t) really been on here in Halifax certainly, but not even really across Canada.
But I was impressed with the right amount of buy-in from all parties; we were able to actually come up with a way to safely do something far more invasive and probably aggressive in terms of care than had been done anywhere else in Canada. And that was really, I think, what got our team feeling more comfortable and confident knowing that we could still provide care at a really high level, despite not having a ton of experience or as much resources. I think from there, we’ve been able to go on and really develop a lot of care pathways that have advanced our care of burn patients in a way that otherwise wouldn’t have been possible without that initial challenge and overcoming it. So, I think we’ve been able to really grow from that challenge and take our experience from that and apply it to many different scenarios since then.