St. Frances Academy Collaborates with Realityworks, Inc. to Add New Technology
School-based health center at St. Frances Academy aims to teach responsible choices.

EAU CLAIRE, WI, October 04, 2011 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Students at Coppin State University Helene Fuld School of Nursing School Based and Community Health Center at St Frances Academy (SFA) will now have the opportunity to work with hands-on simulations while learning valuable life skills. Recently the School-Based Health Center, located in Baltimore, collaborated with Realityworks, Inc. to bring the evidence-based RealCare Baby infant simulators and other experiential learning tools to the school.

The School-Based Health Center at SFA was recently awarded a national grant from Kaiser Permanente. With the grant money they wanted to acquire programming for their students that would address responsible life choices surrounding obesity, prevention of teen pregnancy and STIs, and community outreach. The program will start this October and be available as an elective and an after school program for grades 9 to 12.

To address teen pregnancy and STIs, SFA will be using the RealCare Baby program. The program combines comprehensive curricula with RealCare Baby - a state-of-the-art computerized infant simulator. The simulator provides a realistic hands-on experience of caring for a newborn infant. It requires feeding, burping, changing and rocking while constantly monitoring abuse or mishandling and recording neglect.

"We want our program to show the students that the choices they make in life can have negative or positive effects for their futures," said Patricia Setlow, Director of Clinic and Nurse Practitioner, SFA. "The RealCare Baby will reinforce our lessons by giving the students a hands-on look at what life could be like with an infant."

In addition to the RealCare Baby program, SFA added simulators to depict the effects of substance abuse during pregnancy and a simulator to show the effects of Shaken Baby Syndrome. SFA will also be using the RealCare Pregnancy Profile to simulate the third trimester of pregnancy. Staff using the simulators will receive Professional Development training from Realityworks to increase their understanding of the program.

"We are pleased to partner with St. Frances Academy to encourage students to make responsible decisions," said Timmothy Boettcher, President of Realityworks. "We hope our experiential learning technology engage their students and bring their lessons to life."

About St. Frances Academy
Established in 1828, St. Frances Academy (SFA) is an independent Catholic high school with African American and Hispanic roots. St. Frances Academy serves as an agent of positive change within its inner-city neighborhood. For more information please visit http://www.sfacademy.org/index.aspx or call 410-539-5794.

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Realityworks
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