Question

Melanie, the director of a day-care facility, read an article in the morning paper about an E. coli outbreak at another day-care center across town. She was especially concerned to read that the outbreak was caused by one of the volunteer parents who had changed a soiled diaper and then helped make the afternoon snack for the children. Melanie and her staff are fully committed to the safety of the children in their care. She is determined to ensure that good personal hygiene is practiced not only by all the adult teachers and caretakers, but also by the children. In just two weeks she will be starting a new program for the children called "Kid's Kitchen." Children ages four and up will be able to help prepare the daily snack. She felt this was the ideal place to start her personal hygiene program. Melanie decided to observe the staff and the children in preparation for the new program. She noted that one staffer, after changing a soiled baby diaper, wiped the changing table with a paper towel. She then washed her hands. This staffer was also scheduled to help the children prepare the afternoon snack. In the restroom, Melanie observed that the children, often in a hurry to get back to playing, forgot to wash their hands after using the toilet unless reminded to do so. She also noticed that a few of the younger children had difficulty reaching the soap, although they could reach the sink. This situation was not helped by the fact that the soap in one of the soap dispensers was low, while the other dispenser was empty. Realizing that both staff and children come in contact with each other throughout the day, she implemented two different personal hygiene programs: one for teachers and caretakers and one for children. What things would you change or fix in this operation? What would you include when designing the personal hygiene programs? How would you introduce this to the staff and to the children?

Answer 1

Melanie, the director of the day-care facility needs to introduce cleanliness awareness among the staff, children and parents by doing the following things;

1. putting up posters about cleanliness; such as hand-washing techniques, proper waste disposal, hygiene during food and hygienic etiquette to be maintained at all times
2. conducting "Cleanliness Awareness" workshops before starting up the program, "Kid's Kitchen". This has to be done before the "Kid's Kitchen" program because it would make the children aware of how they should maintain cleanliness before the program is rolled out and thus the program would be successful. Keeping in mind the recent outbreak of E.Coli at the other day-care center, these awareness workshops should be conducted.
3. Connect with the staff, tell them and enforce the "rules of cleanliness" that have to be followed. Tell them why it is required that they follow these. Also tell them about the outbreak of E.Coli at the other day-care center since that would bring about the seriousness of issue of "Cleanliness".
4. Have disposable gloves, sanitisers and handwash available to the disposal of the staff and children. Teach them and emphasize the use of these at the day-care center.
5. Have P&T meet at the day-care center so that the staff may also educate the parents about Cleanliness. In this way, the parents could manage the child's health and hygiene while they are away from the day-care center.
6. Involve the neighbourhood by conducting workshops and cleanliness awareness campaigns.