News & Events
Professor Konecny to be Honored by American Red Cross on June 8
for Initiative that Educates Young Children about Fire & Burn Safety
Professor Konecny (in olive green top) with NYC Fire Dept. staff members, Professional Studies Dean Victor Ayala and students.
Nursing professor Lynda Konecny will be honored by the Red Cross at its June 8 Volunteer Recognition Award Ceremony for her work training more than 100 City Tech nursing students a year to teach children age 10 and under about fire and burn safety.
The American Red Cross Certified Trainer for the borough of Brooklyn, Konecny says that in the fall 2004 and spring 2005 semesters her students taught potentially life-saving techniques to about 2,000 children in public schools and childcare centers in all five boroughs.
For all her efforts over the past three years, Konecny will be one of the honorees at the Red Cross’ upcoming Volunteer Recognition Award Ceremony to be held on June 8 at its Manhattan offices on Amsterdam Avenue. The award recognizes an exceptional volunteer who has served for a minimum of one year, working within such areas as community outreach, emergency communication center, international tracing services project search or homeless services.
Konecny divides City Tech nursing students into fire and burn prevention safety teams. Each student team has four to six members, including a student fire captain who is the contact for community public and private schools and day care agencies. Using Sesame Street puppets and scripts, the students then go into the community and provide on site teaching for the children.
“While the Fire Department has opened a Fire Prevention Museum in Manhattan to provide fire safety classes for children, pupils who attend school in the outer boroughs seldom have an opportunity to travel to the musem, so we go to them,” Konecny said.
Before going out into the community the City Tech students have been thoroughly trained in burn safety by Konecny and in fire safety by a member of the New York City Fire Department.
When they visit a school, the City Tech nursing students bring travel kits containing Sesame Street puppets, props for the skits, a smoke alarm, two Red Cross blankets, New York City Fire Department and American Red Cross coloring books, assorted American Red Cross training records and fire prevention resources for parents.
“Some of our students are foreign-born and didn’t watch ‘Sesame Street’ as children. To prepare, they study the show to master the personality and voice of the Sesame Street puppet they will be manipulating instead of just reading the script,” Konecny explained. “The most difficult voice to imitate is Cookie Monster’s,” she added.
Children are taught the ABCs of fire and burn prevention, including reminding adults not to leave cigarettes unattended and to ask them to devise an emergency plan for their family. The children are taught about carbon monoxide, smoke detectors and electrical outlets, and are given practical tips like checking the temperature of bath water before getting in the tub.
They also learn what to do if fire is on their clothes – “stop, drop and roll.” How to suffocate a flame is taught through a nursery rhyme. The nursing students have the children demonstrate “stop, drop and roll, and then use one of the blankets to simulate smoke and have the children crawl under it.
“The script the City Tech nursing students use, which includes having Oscar the Grouch burn his finger, makes the children laugh but gets important messages across,” Konecny said.
Many of us were told by our mothers and grandmothers to put butter on a burn to help it heal and ease the pain. However, according to Konecny, that is the absolute worst thing to do. “Butter makes burns even worse,” she says. “It causes the burn to penetrate deeper into the tissue instead of working its way out through the skin.”
As for what to do if your finger gets burned in the kitchen, Konecny had this advice: “Apply cool water and aloe gel. Having an aloe plant in the home is a great idea because then you can break off a leaf and place it directly on the injury to reduce the degree of the burn.”
Certified as a coronary care nurse, Konecny’s background includes a stint as a critical care nurse supervisor at Richmond Memorial Hospital. From there she moved to St. Vincent’s Medical Center’s School of nursing, also on Staten Island. She was chairperson of the advanced medical-surgical nursing department and taught critical care nursing.
After a 10-year stint at Felician College, Konecny became a full-time professor at City Tech in fall 2002 and took over the American Red Cross Fire and Burn Safety Program that another nursing professor, Kathryn Richardson, had begun in 1996. In Spring 2003, Konecny expanded the program to include the New York City Fire Department as an educational partner and had it formally designated as a community-based learning project at the College.
She said that she hopes this program sets a pattern for volunteerism that her students will maintain throughout their professional lives. “They learn an important lesson -- that as a nurse, caring and concern can be more than just for patients in a hospital bed. It’s important to use your skills to give back to your community,” she explained.
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