A substantial number of young children in the United States spend more awake hours in early child care and education settings than they do at home.  Understanding how to safely administer medication greatly benefit the children who are in care and minimizes liability risk for those who own, manage, or are employed at these facilities. Early learning professionals play a key role in allowing children with health issues to attend child care outside the home by administering medications as prescribed by a licensed medical professional. Reasons why children in child care settings may need medications include:

➣ Illnesses that require short-term medications (eg, infections)

➣ Emergent situations (eg, seizure, asthma attack)

➣ Chronic conditions where medication is taken on a daily basis (eg, heart defects, cystic fibrosis, sickle cell disease)

Unfortunately, medication errors occur too frequently; therefore, safely administering medications in early care and education settings requires early learning professionals to learn and follow best practices, comply with laws and regulations, and receive yearly medication administration training.

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Objectives

The main goals of this course is to provide early learning professionals with the knowledge and skills to safely administer medications in early care and education settings, including short-term medications (fever-reducing or antibiotics), chronic or long-term medical conditions (asthma), and emergency medications (food allergy and seizures). Acquiring the knowledge and skills for administering medications safely to children in early care and learning leads to improved safety for children.

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