Incident, Injury, Trauma, Illness & First Aid Policy

INCIDENT, INJURY, TRAUMA, ILLNESS & FIRST AID POLICY

POLICY STATEMENT

Annie Dennis Children’s Centre (ADCC) is committed to:

• Taking every reasonable precaution to protect children from harm and any hazard likely to cause injury
• Taking steps to control the spread of infectious diseases
• Managing injuries and illness, in accordance with recognised guidelines
• Developing, practising and implementing plans to effectively manage incidents and emergencies in consultation with relevant authorities
• Complying with all legislative requirements.

RATIONALE

The purpose of this policy is to guide educators to manage illness and prevent injury and the spread of infectious illness. The policy will assist the educators to:

• Meet the children’s needs when they are unwell
• Identify symptoms of illness
• Identify areas that may be hazardous and cause injury
• Monitor and document the progress of an illness
• Guide educators actions when symptoms change
• Notify families or emergency contact when a symptom of an infectious illness, disease or medical condition has been observed
• Notify stakeholders when a doctor has confirmed an infectious illness.

STRATEGIES

In order to assess whether the policy has achieved its purpose, ADCC management/staff and the Committee will:

• Take into account feedback from staff and parents/guardians regarding the policy
• Monitor complaints and incidents regarding any breaches of the policy.

This policy applies to all parents/guardians, the Committee of Management, educators, volunteers and students working within the ADCC.

Educators are responsible for:

• Adhering to all centre policies and procedures
• Acting as positive role models to children.

Families are responsible for adhering to the Centre’s Health and Safety policies:

• Hygiene
• Dental Health
• Administration of Medication
• Supervision of children
• Asthma
• Immunisation, Medical conditions and exclusion
• Safe sleeping

Centre Management is responsible for:

• All educators receiving appropriate training and information pertaining to the identification of illness and providing care for sick children
• Informing all families are adequately informed of an infectious illness in a timely manner
• Obtaining comprehensive health and special requirements of every child in the centre upon enrolment and that this information is regularly updated.

SPECIFIC PRACTICES AND PROCEDURES

Protection from Harm and Hazards

ADCC will take all reasonable precautions to protect children from harm and hazards likely to cause an injury. Reasonable precautions include:

• Regular safety checklists
• Secure storage of all hazardous products including chemicals
• An equipment maintenance schedule
• Risk assessments for identified hazards
• Risk assessments for all excursions
• Consumption of hot food and beverages away from children
• Purchasing equipment that meets the Australian standards
• Yearly testing and tagging of electrical equipment
• Safety plugs in electrical outlets
• Practice fire drills every term
• Educator professional development plans and appraisals to ensure compliance with policies and procedures.

Not all risks to children and educators can be eliminated from the play environments and work environments; however hazards will be identified and managed.

Identifying Signs and Symptoms of Illness

It is important to remember that educators are not doctors and are unable to diagnose an illness. To ensure that symptoms are not infectious and minimise the spread of an infection, medical advice should always be sought.

Symptoms of an illness can occur in isolation or in conjunction with others. Educators are to be aware of the following symptoms which may indicate a possible infection or serious medical illness or condition.

Symptoms indicating an illness may include:

• Behaviour that is unusual for the individual child, such as a child who is normally active and who suddenly becomes lethargic or drowsy
• High temperature or fever
• Loose bowels
• Faeces which is grey, pale or contains blood
• Vomiting
• Discharge from the eye or ear
• Skin that displays rashes, blisters, spots, crusty or weeping sores
• Loss of appetite
• Dark urine
• Headaches
• Stiff neck or other muscular and joint pain
• Continuous scratching of scalp or skin
• Difficulty in swallowing or complaining of a sore throat
• Persistent, prolonged or severe coughing
• Difficulty in breathing.

Staying Healthy in Child Care, 4th Ed 2005, p. 18

Monitoring the Symptoms of an Illness

It is important to remember that educators can interpret the severity of the same symptom differently. Multiple people observing symptoms independently of each other may not accurately reflect when changes become more severe and therefore, an illness may become more seriouswithout notice. For this reason, educators are to nominate one person to care for an ill child, who can record any changes in breathing, colour of skin, levels of consciousness or change in temperature.

Documenting Symptoms of an Illness

Documenting symptoms is crucial to the success of monitoring an illness, especially when the conditions change and the child becomes increasingly unwell. Records are an important way of communicating to a family how their child’s illness has developed or been managed by educators.

Paramedics, medical practitioners and hospitals may use the information collected from educators to diagnose an illness. For example, by documenting a child’s temperature every 15 minutes assists educators to determine how quickly the temperature is rising and the possible severity of the illness.

Educators are to record the symptoms of an illness on the child’s individual Incident, Injury, Trauma and Illness Record.

Notifying Families or Emergency Contacts when an Illness is Present

In the event of a child displaying symptoms of an illness requiring exclusion, educators are to:

• Notify the Assistant Director/Director
• Exclude children and educators from the service as per the exclusion policy
• Inform other families of an infectious disease. This is only to be done after a formal diagnosis from a doctor is received.

Administration of First Aid

All educators employed at the Centre are trained in administering First Aid. First Aid refresher courses are undertaken on a yearly basis.

Where an incident arises and an educator is to administer First Aid to either a child or an adult they are to treat the patient to the best of their ability, and based on the training they have received.

A First Aid Kit is maintained and readily accessible to all educators only at the Centre (as required: Section 89, NQS Regulations).

Where more than one educator holds First Aid training they may work together to treat a child or adult.

Emergency services should be contacted whenever the educators are concerned the injury sustained to the patient is deemed beyond their trained capacity to safely manage and the severity of the injury or illness warrants immediate professional attention.

Once the educators are confident that the child or adults injuries have been assessed and treated they are to determine if the parent/guardian needs to be contacted and informed of the incident. Educators may be required to provide basic first aid for minor injuries such as a scratched knee, or for more serious injuries such as a spider bite. Details on any such first aid provided must be recorded on the Incident, Injury Trauma and Illness forms as required by this Policy.

Minor accidents:

Where a minor accident occurs the child will receive comfort and first aid where required. Educators are to complete an Accident/Incident Form providing details of the injury, and if possible how the injury occurred. Educators are to ensure that all sections of this form are completed and place in the child’s individual file. Parents will be informed of the injury on arrival at the Centre. Educators may contact the parents to inform them of the injury to allow parents to make an informed choice on the care of their child. This may be the case, for example if the child has bumped their head, however the injury is not serious, or has been bitten and remains upset after an accident.

Minor Incidents:

A minor incident may occur where a child has experienced an event that has caused them to become upset, scared or concerned. An example of this would be a child falling from equipment. In this instance it is important that educators inform the parents of the situation.

Where an incident occurs staff are to complete the Accident/Incident Form, providing the details of the incident whilst maintaining confidentiality of any other children involved. Educators are to ensure that all sections of this form are completed and place in the child’s individual file. Parents will be informed of the incident on arrival.

Procedures in the event of a Serious Injury, Incident or Trauma

Where a child enrolled in ADCC has been involved in a serious incident the Director is required to notify the Department of Education and Communities within 24 hours of the incident occurring, or from being informed of the incident occurring.

A serious incident is defined by the Education and Care Services Regulation (12) as:

• The death of a child either whilst being cared for at the education and care service or following an incident that occurred at the education and care service
• Any incident involving injury, trauma to or illness of a child that required the attention of a registered medical practitioner or a visit to the hospital, including those that ought to have sort medical or hospital treatment
• Any attendance of emergency services to the education and care service
• Any circumstance where a child enrolled appears to be missing, removed or taken from the service, or mistakenly locked within or outside the premises.

Educators will take the following steps when dealing with a serious incident, injury or trauma:

• Educators will administer the appropriate First Aid
• The child will be kept under adult supervision until he/she recovers while fellow educators contact parents or nominated emergency contacts. If nominated persons cannot be readily contacted the service will act on their behalf
• Every accident that occurs at the service regardless of severity MUST be documented.
• The educators witnessing and managing the accident are required to complete an Accident/Incident/Trauma/Injury Form and have it signed by:

• witnessing educators
• the Assistant Director/Director
• the child’s parent/s

• Incident forms are to be signed by the Assistant Director/Director and kept in the office
• Notification needs to be made to the Department of Education and Training.

Form s101

Procedures to follow in the event of death

In the event of serious injury or death of either a child or adult occurring on the Centre premises the following emergency procedures will be taken:

CHECK ------For immediate danger, and then commence resuscitation or CPR.

ADVISE------Need for an Ambulance.

A second educator will telephone for the ambulance.

LOCATION----Give the operator the location of the service

NATURE------Give the nature of the injury and first aid being administered.

• All other children need to be relocated

The Assistant Director and/or Director will:

• Contact the nominated contacts, in the event of a child, usually parent/guardian OR in the event of an educator, from their employment details
• Calmly advise the nominated contact that there has been an accident: In the event of a death, educators cannot advise that there has been a death as only a medical doctor can determine this
• Assign an educator to assist the Ambulance Officers with the casualties details and if necessary travel with the casualty. (Ensure correct educators ratios are maintained at the service – call relief if necessary)

No educator other than the Assistant Director/Director is to give statements to other parents or any other outside organisation, especially the media. Statements will be made after proper consultation with the appropriate authorities and committee of management.

• All educators directly involved in the incident are to prepare and file accurate documents and record the sequence of events
• Notification needs to be made to the Department of Education and Training.

Form s101

The Centre will support the family in any possible way. Educators responses to the incident will be monitored and continuing support provided where necessary.

LINKS TO OTHER POLICIES

• Exclusion Policy
• Supervision Policy

LEGISLATION

Education and Care Services National Law Act 2010

Education and Care Services National Regulations 2011 and the National Quality Standard (Schedule 1 of the Regulations)

LINK TO NATIONAL QUALITY STANDARDS

Quality Area 2: Children’s health and safety- focuses on safeguarding and promoting children’s health and safety.

Standards 2.1 is linked to section 165, regulations 85-87, 89-93

Standards 2.3 is linked to section 165, 167 regulations 77, 84, 99, 100, 161-162 and 168

SOURCES

National Health and Medical Research Council. (2005). Staying Healthy In Childcare

GLOSSARY OF TERMS

An accident is a term used to describe an unplanned event that has caused an injury to a person or thing.

An incident is any unplanned event that may result in injury, harm, ill health or damage.

A trauma is an injury to the body that occurs when a physical force contacts the body.

An illness is a disease or period of sickness that affects the body.

APPROVAL March 2013

NEXT REVIEW DATE March 2015