Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/training-in-health-and-safety-practice-is-just-the-beginning/5015664/
I asked Marsha Sherman to write this article because she is a veteran early childhood educator who has been working on improving health and safety in group care settings for much of her career. She understands the need and methods for integrating health and safety with “best practices” in the real world of early education and child care.�" Susan S. Aronson MD, FAAP
Many child care providers now attend courses that offer five to 25 hours of health and safety training in community or classroom settings. Yet after many visits to child care programs to observe levels of compliance with nationally recommended health and safety standards, it is clear that training alone will not change practices.
As part of training health professionals as Child Care Health Consultants (CCHC) for child care providers, the instructors organized field trips to model centers. The goal of the visits was to observe health and safety practices at centers that serve children from six weeks to six years of age. Prior to the visits, the center staff had attended an in-service or community course on child care health and safety.
At one program, the CCHC students brought a list of foods that are choking hazards for infants ...