The University of Maryland Shore Regional Health (UM SRH), a member organization of the University of Maryland Medical System, is hosting upcoming Safe Sitter® courses at UM Shore Medical Center locations in Chestertown and Easton.
The course will be taught by UM SRH Women and Children’s Department nurses and is designed for children ages 11 to 13. Dates and times for the courses are: Saturday, January 24, March 14, June 20 and October 24, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at UM Shore Medical Center at Easton, 219 South Washington St.; and Saturday, June 13, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at UM Shore Medical Center at Chestertown, 100 Brown St.
The course is designed to prepare students to be safe when they are home alone, watching younger siblings or babysitting other children. The instructor-led class is taught using games and role-playing exercises so that students can practice rescue skills. Participants in the program can also expect to learn safety skills, including how to prevent unsafe situations and what to do when faced with dangers such as power failures or weather emergencies; child care skills, such as tips to manage behavior that will help sitters stay in control of themselves and the children in their care; first aid and rescue skills, including CPR and choking rescue; and life and business skills to help sitters screen potential childcare jobs, discuss fees and greet employers.
“As parents and caregivers, we all want to know our children are prepared before we trust them with the responsibility of caring for someone younger,” said Stephanie Blades, MSN, RNC-OB, clinical nurse educator for Women and Children’s Services at UM SRH. “Safe Sitter is a nationally recognized, nurse-led program that empowers pre-teens with essential, real-life skills. Through interactive lessons, hands-on practice, and age-appropriate activities, students learn in a way that’s engaging and supportive. I’ve seen the long-term impact of this course firsthand — my own children completed Safe Sitter more than a decade ago, and now I have the privilege of teaching it to a new generation.”
The cost of the program is $50, and a Safe Sitter kit will be provided to all student participants. Students should bring a lunch on the day of the program.
To register for the course, email Gladys Peeples at Gladys.Peeples@umm.edu. Early registration is encouraged, as class size is limited. For questions, call Stephanie Blades at 410-822-1000, ext. 5234.
About University of Maryland Shore Regional Health
A member organization of the University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS), University of Maryland Shore Regional Health (UM SRH) is the principal provider of comprehensive health care services for more than 170,000 residents of five counties on Maryland’s Eastern Shore: Caroline, Dorchester, Kent, Queen Anne’s and Talbot. UM SRH consists of approximately 2,000 team members, including more than 600 health care providers on the Medical Staff, who work with community partners to advance the values that are foundational to our mission: Compassion, Discovery, Excellence, Diversity and Integrity. For more information, visit https://www.umms.org/shore.
About the University of Maryland Medical System
The University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS) is an academic private health system, focused on delivering compassionate, high quality care and putting discovery and innovation into practice at the bedside. Partnering with the University of Maryland School of Medicine and University of Maryland, Baltimore who educate the state’s future health care professionals, UMMS is an integrated network of care, delivering 25 percent of all hospital care in urban, suburban and rural communities across the state of Maryland. UMMS puts academic medicine within reach through primary and specialty care delivered at 11 hospitals, including the flagship University of Maryland Medical Center, the System’s anchor institution in downtown Baltimore, as well as through a network of University of Maryland Urgent Care centers and more than 150 other locations in 13 counties. For more information, visit www.umms.org.
