Au Pair In America – Orientation Notes
The Three No’s:
- Three most NB rules – things you can’t do
- Understand before going to HF – issued by DOS + APIA
- No drugs, no alcohol abuse, no child abuse
- No smoking pot, even if its legal
- If bring medicine, talk to HF about where to keep it
- If bring medicine about hurt back, family might ask how you feel when taking it
and they may ask you to not take the meds when driving or providing childcare,
etc
- Kept in safe place away from children
- Legal drinking age in US = 21 and older
- Will check ID – it’s the law
- Can’t be drunk around kids – can drink as long as not providing childcare
- Use good judgement when drinking – don’t be overly drunk
- No alcohol if providing childcare
- 0 drinking if driving – APIA has zero tolerance policy – organise a DD
- How to protect myself – be aware of surroundings and make good decisions for
self and take care of each other, know what you are drinking
- Date rape drug: colourless, odourless, tasteless (wont realise it); if drink, become
unable to protect self, control actions and wake up next morning not knowing
where you are, what you did, etc
- When someone buys you a drink: take it from bartender, watch them pour it, open
the bottle and take it directly from them
- If go to bathroom / dancefloor, take drink with you or buy new one
- Never leave drink unattended
- Child abuse – biggest concern (3 kinds = verbal, physical, sexual)
- Be careful with words you use, look at what HF does / how they talk
,- Cant spank children / grab them unless it has to do with their safety
- Can’t make children stand in corner / put hands on head / shake them
- Step away if you feel like you are going to lose control
- No pictures of child without cloths on = illegal in US
- Have to be covered by bathing suit, etc
- If child wakes in middle of night, can let parents take care of child or you can do it
yourself (technically you aren’t in charge of them during that time)
- Don’t get into bed with the kid – take them back to their room
- Never leave kids alone
- If need to use bathroom, ask HF how they want you to handle it (depends on age
and gender of kids) – may want you to take kids with you / ask you to use family
bathroom
- If HC needs to go to toilet, need to ask HF – different families have different rules
- Never let children see you naked
- ALWAYS stay with the kids
- Never leave child in car
- Never leave child in public place
- Never leave child at the back garden
- Never leave child in one part of the house if you’re in another
- Have all children staying with you
- STAY WITH THE KIDS
- What if break rules? Find yourself on way home
Shaken baby video:
- No one can give permission to hit American child – not even HF / physically
discipline child
- How to manage when child is crying for long time: put baby in safe place and
walk away, call friend / neighbour, call hotline for support – look at orientation
package
,CPR:
Five Fears
Stop people from rescuing
1. Unsure of skills
2. What if I make condition of patient worse? What if I hurt or kill them because I did
something wrong
3. What if I get sued (lawsuit) – Good Samaritan Act 1985 (as long as you’re not
getting compensation for it, you don’t mean to do anything wrong, don’t go
beyond your level of training; you are fine) – all 50 states
4. What if there’s blood or body fluids where I catch a disease (disease) – wear
gloves to keep bugs or pathogens away and keep self safe – personal protective
equipment – if don’t feel comfortable, hands-only CPR still helps patient
5. What if it’s too dangerous (unsafe scene) – this is the legitimate reason not to
rescue (eg. burning house) – can still call 911 – don’t go into something if you
become hurt – stay at a distance until scene is safe
Stop 90% of rescuers from using their skills
Get rid of them to insert empowerment, become confident
Technology and Emergency Services:
- Text messages (help those hearing impaired, helps in loud situations
- Preferred method of accessing EMS = dialling 911 with phone – put on speaker
phone to be coaxed through emergency
- Can find a phone in 2 states on average, locked / unlocked
- Teach nanny’s and children about this
- App like PulsePoint – enter into pool of rescuers to be noticed about
Emergencies in areas
- VOIP – voice over internet protocol – these phones are popular and can be
moved from office to office and maintain same number
- Your responsibility to update current location for device
, CPR + First Aid Updates
- At least 100 and no more than 120 compressions per minute
- Depth of compression = at least 2 inches deep and no more than 2.4 inches deep
- Though hands-only CPR is better than no CPR, for kids, chest compressions and
rescue breaths are more beneficial
- Put phone on speaker as work through process
- Refresh skills more frequently than ever two years / get re-certified annually
- Also NB to know how deep we’re compressing the chest
- Video based training is just as effective as learning in class
6 topics to be discussed:
- out of control bleeding
- when to use haemostatic agent
- when to use tourniquet
- not actually going to use fully occlusive chest dressing with open chest wound
- spinal immobilisation
- not using C collars anymore, not trying to fully immobilise – trying to minimise
movement of patient
- tooth avulsion
- use to put teeth in whole milk + egg whites
- hypoglycaemia treatment
- usually after first dose of treatment of giving someone sugar, we can now wait for
diabetic for up to 15 mins before activating EMS and getting them on the way
- stroke assessment
- acronym to help recognise stroke
- when concussion patients can return to work
- assessment put in place that when a patient has signs + symptoms of
concussion, they don’t return to play or work until fully cleared by health professional
Heart Attacks:
- Pain in chest, almost like someone’s sitting on chest, sweating (diaphoresis)
- ? history of heart attacks / problems
- to be safe, call ambo
The Three No’s:
- Three most NB rules – things you can’t do
- Understand before going to HF – issued by DOS + APIA
- No drugs, no alcohol abuse, no child abuse
- No smoking pot, even if its legal
- If bring medicine, talk to HF about where to keep it
- If bring medicine about hurt back, family might ask how you feel when taking it
and they may ask you to not take the meds when driving or providing childcare,
etc
- Kept in safe place away from children
- Legal drinking age in US = 21 and older
- Will check ID – it’s the law
- Can’t be drunk around kids – can drink as long as not providing childcare
- Use good judgement when drinking – don’t be overly drunk
- No alcohol if providing childcare
- 0 drinking if driving – APIA has zero tolerance policy – organise a DD
- How to protect myself – be aware of surroundings and make good decisions for
self and take care of each other, know what you are drinking
- Date rape drug: colourless, odourless, tasteless (wont realise it); if drink, become
unable to protect self, control actions and wake up next morning not knowing
where you are, what you did, etc
- When someone buys you a drink: take it from bartender, watch them pour it, open
the bottle and take it directly from them
- If go to bathroom / dancefloor, take drink with you or buy new one
- Never leave drink unattended
- Child abuse – biggest concern (3 kinds = verbal, physical, sexual)
- Be careful with words you use, look at what HF does / how they talk
,- Cant spank children / grab them unless it has to do with their safety
- Can’t make children stand in corner / put hands on head / shake them
- Step away if you feel like you are going to lose control
- No pictures of child without cloths on = illegal in US
- Have to be covered by bathing suit, etc
- If child wakes in middle of night, can let parents take care of child or you can do it
yourself (technically you aren’t in charge of them during that time)
- Don’t get into bed with the kid – take them back to their room
- Never leave kids alone
- If need to use bathroom, ask HF how they want you to handle it (depends on age
and gender of kids) – may want you to take kids with you / ask you to use family
bathroom
- If HC needs to go to toilet, need to ask HF – different families have different rules
- Never let children see you naked
- ALWAYS stay with the kids
- Never leave child in car
- Never leave child in public place
- Never leave child at the back garden
- Never leave child in one part of the house if you’re in another
- Have all children staying with you
- STAY WITH THE KIDS
- What if break rules? Find yourself on way home
Shaken baby video:
- No one can give permission to hit American child – not even HF / physically
discipline child
- How to manage when child is crying for long time: put baby in safe place and
walk away, call friend / neighbour, call hotline for support – look at orientation
package
,CPR:
Five Fears
Stop people from rescuing
1. Unsure of skills
2. What if I make condition of patient worse? What if I hurt or kill them because I did
something wrong
3. What if I get sued (lawsuit) – Good Samaritan Act 1985 (as long as you’re not
getting compensation for it, you don’t mean to do anything wrong, don’t go
beyond your level of training; you are fine) – all 50 states
4. What if there’s blood or body fluids where I catch a disease (disease) – wear
gloves to keep bugs or pathogens away and keep self safe – personal protective
equipment – if don’t feel comfortable, hands-only CPR still helps patient
5. What if it’s too dangerous (unsafe scene) – this is the legitimate reason not to
rescue (eg. burning house) – can still call 911 – don’t go into something if you
become hurt – stay at a distance until scene is safe
Stop 90% of rescuers from using their skills
Get rid of them to insert empowerment, become confident
Technology and Emergency Services:
- Text messages (help those hearing impaired, helps in loud situations
- Preferred method of accessing EMS = dialling 911 with phone – put on speaker
phone to be coaxed through emergency
- Can find a phone in 2 states on average, locked / unlocked
- Teach nanny’s and children about this
- App like PulsePoint – enter into pool of rescuers to be noticed about
Emergencies in areas
- VOIP – voice over internet protocol – these phones are popular and can be
moved from office to office and maintain same number
- Your responsibility to update current location for device
, CPR + First Aid Updates
- At least 100 and no more than 120 compressions per minute
- Depth of compression = at least 2 inches deep and no more than 2.4 inches deep
- Though hands-only CPR is better than no CPR, for kids, chest compressions and
rescue breaths are more beneficial
- Put phone on speaker as work through process
- Refresh skills more frequently than ever two years / get re-certified annually
- Also NB to know how deep we’re compressing the chest
- Video based training is just as effective as learning in class
6 topics to be discussed:
- out of control bleeding
- when to use haemostatic agent
- when to use tourniquet
- not actually going to use fully occlusive chest dressing with open chest wound
- spinal immobilisation
- not using C collars anymore, not trying to fully immobilise – trying to minimise
movement of patient
- tooth avulsion
- use to put teeth in whole milk + egg whites
- hypoglycaemia treatment
- usually after first dose of treatment of giving someone sugar, we can now wait for
diabetic for up to 15 mins before activating EMS and getting them on the way
- stroke assessment
- acronym to help recognise stroke
- when concussion patients can return to work
- assessment put in place that when a patient has signs + symptoms of
concussion, they don’t return to play or work until fully cleared by health professional
Heart Attacks:
- Pain in chest, almost like someone’s sitting on chest, sweating (diaphoresis)
- ? history of heart attacks / problems
- to be safe, call ambo
