INTRODUCTION

Caring for Our Children: National Health and Safety Performance Standards for Out-of--Home Child Care Programs, 2nd Edition (CFOC, 2nd Ed.)was released by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), American Public Health Association (APHA), the Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB), and the National Resource Center for Health and Safety in Child Care (NRC) in January 2002. The full edition of CFOC, 2nd Ed. contains 707 standards and recommendations on all aspects regarding the health and safety of children in child care settings. These standards were developed by leading health and safety experts over a period of four years. Each standard includes rationale behind the need for such practices. The full edition is available on the NRC web site at http://nrckids.org/CFOC/index.html. Print copies can be purchased from the American Academy of Pediatrics (www.aap.org)and the American Public Health Association (www.apha.org).

In an effort to make select subject areas more accessible to intended users, the National Resource Center for Health and Safety in Child Care (NRC) is developing smaller documents on specific subject areas. This document is a compilation of the standards on child care staff health and well-being.

Over 2.3 million paid caregivers provide child care services to children ages 0 through 5 in the United States. In order to provide quality programs for those millions of children in their care, providers must take good care of themselves as well as taking good care of children. Child care work is a physically and emotionally demanding job that requires providers to lift and carry many pounds frequently each day; to sit on the floor many hours each week; to daily come in contact with body fluids through care-taking; to often be exposed to infectious illnesses; and to deal emotionally with the responsibility for the welfare of the children in their care and with their parents' concerns as well.

Child care workers have one of the most demanding and stress-filled professions. Of particular concern for the health and well-being of child care providers are exposure to and control of infectious diseases, good ergonomics to prevent injuries, minimizing occupational hazards, and dealing with stressful situations involving children and parents. Another stressor that child care providers may experience is to react quickly and calmly in emergency situations. Readers should take special note of standards 8.022 and 8.024 (pgs. 15-6) dealing with handling urgent medical care, threatening incidents and evacuation plans.

In order for providers to promote good mental and physical health of children, they need to experience healthy work environments and take good care of themselves. Child care providers should be role models in health promotion and disease prevention for both the parents who entrust their children to them and for the children themselves.

Intended audiences

The intended audiences for this document are:

• child care providers who need to understand the health hazards involved in working in child care settings and the preventive measures to take to reduce the risk of such hazards;
  
• state regulators and policy makers who are formulating or changing state regulations;
  
• health consultants and trainers who can promote and teach appropriate and positive occupational health practices;
  
• parents who need to understand the importance of healthy work environments for the providers who take care of their children.
  

Throughout this document there will be references to other standards contained in the full edition of CFOC, 2nd Ed. that are not present in this document. For example, comments in Standard 1.023 regarding the orientation of all staff refers to many standards which are not in this document but are found in the full edition of CFOC, 2nd Ed. In the web version, the user can click on the link to these standards to get to wording of the standard in CFOC, 2nd Ed. Also, standards in this compilation are not necessarily in numerical order because similar topics were brought together from different sections in the larger CFOC, 2nd Ed. Select appendices, from CFOC, 2nd Ed., appropriate to staff health and well-being, were included in this compilation. For a complete list of appendices see CFOC, 2nd Ed.`s table of contents at http://nrckids.org/CFOC/HTMLVersion/TOC.html

We would like to give special thanks to Rene Gratz, PhD, Phyllis Stubbs-Wynn, MD, MPH, and R. Lorraine Brown, RN, BS, for reviewing this compilation of standards on staff health and well-being. We would also like to thank all those individuals who contributed to CFOC, 2nd Ed. A listing can be viewed at: http://nrckids.org/CFOC/PDFVersion/Acknowledgments.pdf

As with all areas in health, new research comes forth and we recommend that users continue to visit the following web sites for the most up-to-date information on child care provider health and well-being:

Center for the Child Care Workforce

http://www.ccw.org/

Healthy Child Care: Health and Safety Ideas for the Young Child

http://www.healthychild.net

National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies

http://www.nrex.org/

National Child Care Information Center

http://nccic.org

National Resource Center for Health and Safety in Child Care

http://nrckids.org

National Training Institute for Child Care Health Consultants

http://www.sph.unc.edu/courses/childcare/

For questions or assistance on these standards or Caring for Our Children, 2nd Edition, please contact:

National Resource Center for Health and Safety in Child Care

1-800-598-5437

http://nrckids.org

info@nrckids.org