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Each day nursery has received a few children who were referred by
hospitals or clinics for special observation associated with a physical
handicap or a behaviour problem. Some of these have made remarkable
progress, due in some measure to the unremitting efforts of the day
nursery staff in carrying out the prescribed treatment. These children
absorb a larger proportion of time than the normal child. For this
reason it will only be possible and perhaps desirable to admit a very
small percentage of such children while the ratio of staff to children
remains at its present level.
The educational value of the day nursery to the child and mother of
all types should not be under-estimated. The opportunities for learning
and teaching by example are inexhaustible.
Two student nursery nurses entered for the examination of the National
Nursery Nurses Examination Board and were successful in obtaining
the Board's Certificate. One nursery nurse attended a special course in
child care which qualified her to be appointed a warden at Plevna Day
Nursery.
B.O.A.C. stewardesses and British Red Cross cadets were given
opportunities for observation and practical experience in the day
nurseries during the year. Residential student nurses were also accepted
for similar experience.
Outbreak of Dysentery at a Day Nursery
On the 29th July 1957 the Matron reported several of the younger
children in one room as having diarrhoea. These children were immediately
excluded and the mothers advised to consult their family doctors.
Specimens were taken from the remainder of the children. During the
next few days 14 children were excluded, 13 as cases of diarrhoea and one
as a contact of these cases. Nine were proved to have Sonne type
dysentery and one other child to have a bacillus coli infection. Pathogenic
organisms were not recovered in three cases.
At the start of the outbreak it was decided that no child should be
admitted to the nursery without previous medical approval. A thorough
cleansing of the nursery, and especially of the toilets and washrooms,
was undertaken and the toilets were cleansed after use and several times
daily as a routine. Faeces specimens from the nursery and kitchen
staff were all negative.
The first child was re-admitted to the nursery on the 19th August and
the last child to become negative returned on the 14th October. Several
cases proved very resistant to treatment, largely because of poor hygienic
facilities at home, and three children were admitted to hospital and
treated successfully there. No new case has been reported since the
15th August and no case was discovered at any time in any other room
in the Day Nursery.
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