Week 13_4/21/16_CPR Manifesto

As words from the futuristic manifesto say” We want to sing the love of danger, the habit of danger and of temerity.” Relating this back to my topic of safety regulations in day care facilities, we need to voice our opinions and the danger or temerity or confidence in the abilities of our child care staff to effectively care for our children. Safety needs to be our main priority!

With the safety of our children at stake we need to be more proactive about how we care for children in these facilities. As many of us know, daycare is an easy tool for child care when we are incapable of watching our own children for whatever reasons. We need to examine these locations for what they really are, expose their faults and fix them so that there will be no more gaps in the safety of the children.

First, we need to take a look at certifications of the employees themselves. In order to work with children there should be at least the minimum certifications of CPR (cardio-pulmonary resuscitation), as well as basic first aid. These will come in handy as children are clumsy and take more risks. These areas are more prone to accidents, and it is important that the staff at these locations understand how to properly care for the children in them. As these are high risk areas, it is important that we feel our children are safe and that the people we trust with out children know how to respond in an emergency.

Secondly, we need to look at the type of training that the employees in these facilities receive. It is not enough to only get orientation training. There needs to be pre-service training, to make sure that the employees are appropriately equipped to come and work in a facility such as this. They also need to have ongoing training. This could be the most important type of training as it is important that the staff stays up to date and current on the trends of CPR. While it is not often used, it is even more dire that they are able to react to a situation in time and do not hesitate. An emergency could happen anywhere and anytime so it is imperative that we feel comfortable sending our children to a place where we know they will be safe.

            Next, we need to make sure that there are proper health regulations set in place. As children are more likely to put things in their mouths, we need to make sure that they are healthy as they have weaker immune systems than adults. Some of these measures could range from using hand sanitizer as children enter or exit the facility, wiping down surfaces at the end of every shift, to requiring vaccinations. We need to take the preventative measures to ensure that no diseases get spread and that infection does not travel from one child to the next.

            Lastly, we need to get more funding for these training programs. While this is a great start to come up with a list of regulations, we need to be more assertive when it comes to our children. We need to lobby the government, gain community support, gain popularity for the issue or apply for private grant funding. The future of our children are in our hands, what are we going to do about it.