2012 Volume 42 Pages 43-54
This study was performed to elucidate the recognition of "Health and Safety," a chapter in the Nursery School Childcare Guidance, and its implementation by the childcare persons after the revision of the Guidance. The survey was conducted using the stratified random sampling method on 1,763 childcare persons of 130 nursery schools in prefecture A (collection rate:46.2% ).The result revealed that the childcare persons tended to recognize that actions for "Health and Safety" were taken. They have been confident with their routine procedures that were performed since before the revision, such as "understanding the health condition of the child and reporting to his/her guardian when s/he develops illness," and "infection prevention and maintaining better health environment in nursery schools." On the other hand, there is still the need for quality childcare, which were newly included in the Guidance in this revision, such as food education, support for families and nursery school plans for health promotion and its evaluation. The result also suggested that employing specialists such as nurses and dieticians will lead to the better quality of care in nursery schools.Employing full-time specialists such as nurses and working with "Health and Safety" systematically in each nursery school may contribute to better childcare in the future.
