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Supervising siblings
I attended the recent pediatric course in Minneapolis and have two questions:
1) I have just started seeing pediatric patients in a therapy pool housed in a clinic that primarily treats adults. The clinic has allowed us to use the pool with the stipulation that siblings cannot wait in their waiting room. If siblings attend, they must be in the pool room with adult supervision. The pool deck is small and I frequently have one adult with several very young children. I am the only therapist in the pool during the time scheduled for pediatrics and there is no lifeguard and no other staff in the pool area. One parent requested permission to bring her 2 and 4 year old into the pool while I treat her 7 year old. Another parent asked if she could hire someone to teach an older sibling swimming lessons while I treat her 19 mo. old. Any advice on how to best deal with this situation?
Well, here's is my take on your questions. The short answer would be: You are liable for the safety of everyone in the pool area if you are the only one present. I would not allow siblings into the pool -- with or without their parent -- unless they were 1. Participating in your treatment of their sibling; or 2. Working with another person (instructor, therapist, etc.). It is also a huge safety risk. Parents almost never watch their children closely in the water and some parents need rescuing as well!
Think of it this way. It is a distraction to you and to your patient to have other children playing around in the water. Your attention needs to be 100% on creating the optimum pool session for the child.
Now, if the facility wants to explore offering swim instruction (with another person) during the session, that is certainly another matter, although you will still run into some issues with your kid's attention/focus, etc. Certainly, the facility would have to OK the parent bringing in anyone (and I assume it wouldn't work if it wasn't someone they had a contract with/had vetted/had checked liability insurance, etc).
Think of it this way. It is a distraction to you and to your patient to have other children playing around in the water. Your attention needs to be 100% on creating the optimum pool session for the child.
Now, if the facility wants to explore offering swim instruction (with another person) during the session, that is certainly another matter, although you will still run into some issues with your kid's attention/focus, etc. Certainly, the facility would have to OK the parent bringing in anyone (and I assume it wouldn't work if it wasn't someone they had a contract with/had vetted/had checked liability insurance, etc).