Safe Sitters: "Better Sitters Today, Better Parents Tomorrow"
July 29, 2019 at 12:37 p.m.
Lourdes Medical Center of Burlington County is offering a number of “Safe Sitters” babysitting courses for boys and girls ages 11 to 13. The program instills confidence and provides medical knowledge to young child care workers while stressing the safety of both child and sitter.
Registered nurse Peggy Cossette-Bauer has been a course instructor for seven years. She cited the program’s “Better Sitters Today, Better Parents Tomorrow” motto as the reason for her participation. “I was a babysitter and had no training,” she remembered.
During each course, rudimentary first aid instruction is given, and the students are taught when to call a trusted adult or 911 Emergency Services.
Discipline techniques and tips on relating to a very young child are also shared. An additional teacher is added to the course once the enrollment reaches eight students to ensure personalized instruction.
Each student leaves the course with a folder of important information and laminated instruction cards to serve as resources for future assignments.
“The sitters also need safety for themselves,” Cossette-Bauer stated, noting that the courses give the teens information on accepting and declining assignments, when to call a trusted adult or 911 Emergency, and how to start a babysitting business. Holding classes in the hospital makes the education process seem less like school and more fun, she observed.
“On the final day, their parents come and see a Heimlich [maneuver] demonstration, and the children get cards to say they have graduated.
Safe Sitters, Inc. (www.safesitter.org) was founded in 1980 by Dr. Patricia A. Keener, medical director of Nurseries and Pediatrics at Community Hospitals in Indianapolis, after the death of a nurse’s young child while in the care of an adult babysitter. Keener recognized the tragedy could have been prevented with rudimentary medical education and designed a course for those entrusted with the care of children.
The two-session Safe Sitters course runs from 5:30 to 9 p.m. on June 7 and 9 and is repeated July 19 and 21. Classes are held at the back of the cafeteria of the hospital, located at 218A Sunset Road, Willingboro. Enrollment is limited; the class fee is $45 and students should bring a baby doll to class.
Call 609-835-5813 to register or for further information.
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Lourdes Medical Center of Burlington County is offering a number of “Safe Sitters” babysitting courses for boys and girls ages 11 to 13. The program instills confidence and provides medical knowledge to young child care workers while stressing the safety of both child and sitter.
Registered nurse Peggy Cossette-Bauer has been a course instructor for seven years. She cited the program’s “Better Sitters Today, Better Parents Tomorrow” motto as the reason for her participation. “I was a babysitter and had no training,” she remembered.
During each course, rudimentary first aid instruction is given, and the students are taught when to call a trusted adult or 911 Emergency Services.
Discipline techniques and tips on relating to a very young child are also shared. An additional teacher is added to the course once the enrollment reaches eight students to ensure personalized instruction.
Each student leaves the course with a folder of important information and laminated instruction cards to serve as resources for future assignments.
“The sitters also need safety for themselves,” Cossette-Bauer stated, noting that the courses give the teens information on accepting and declining assignments, when to call a trusted adult or 911 Emergency, and how to start a babysitting business. Holding classes in the hospital makes the education process seem less like school and more fun, she observed.
“On the final day, their parents come and see a Heimlich [maneuver] demonstration, and the children get cards to say they have graduated.
Safe Sitters, Inc. (www.safesitter.org) was founded in 1980 by Dr. Patricia A. Keener, medical director of Nurseries and Pediatrics at Community Hospitals in Indianapolis, after the death of a nurse’s young child while in the care of an adult babysitter. Keener recognized the tragedy could have been prevented with rudimentary medical education and designed a course for those entrusted with the care of children.
The two-session Safe Sitters course runs from 5:30 to 9 p.m. on June 7 and 9 and is repeated July 19 and 21. Classes are held at the back of the cafeteria of the hospital, located at 218A Sunset Road, Willingboro. Enrollment is limited; the class fee is $45 and students should bring a baby doll to class.
Call 609-835-5813 to register or for further information.