My health and social care setting is an under 5’s nursery, within my setting there may be many incidents or emergencies. There could be incidents within my setting such as bumping their heads, falling over, tripping over toys. An emergency within my setting could be things such as fires or severe injuries such as being knocked unconscious. In this assignment I will cover two incidents or emergencies, the ones I will be covering are actual and suspected abuse and exposure to infection.

In my setting, exposure to infection is high, children are always picking up bugs, colds and much more. they also sometimes have accidents, this means the staff are exposed to bodily fluids. You should always protect yourself and those around you from infections. Infections are able to enter the body in several different ways, these are inhalation- breathing in, and ingestion- swallowing. When working in my setting, it is extremely important to have strict hygiene standards. When dealing with changing children’s nappies, staff should wash their hands thoroughly with soap and warm water, then apply gloves and proceed to change them or help the children with the toilet, they should do this when dealing with accidents also, they should wash their hands before they apply gloves because if they have any germs already on their hands, putting the gloves on will only make them multiply, this is why they should also wash them afterwards also although they are using gloves which stop the body fluids getting onto their hands they could have missed germs the first time washing them. Staff should thoroughly clean cutlery used and when severing food,make sure they have again washed their hands and applied gloves, staff should do this because if a child has a cold or infection of any kind, if their cups they’ve used have not been washed thoroughly, germs could easily be missed and handed to another child with a low immune system which could multiply in no time. They should make sure when they are serving food they wash their hands and put gloves on again, because of germs multiplying and if they have a cut using a blue washproof plaster they should do this because it is easy to spot within food and is wash-proof, so it will not come unstuck easily when in contact with water, it will also be noticeable if it becomes loose or falls of within food, as it is blue if it does fall off within food, the food should be correctly disposed of, they should do this because the food is then classed as contaminated and no good.
They should make sure that the children always thoroughly wash and dry their hands after using the bathroom as this can pass on infection quickly, they should make sure of this as if the children do not wash their hands then go and play, they are transferring the germs from their body fluids to other children and other toys, they could touch another child and easily pass it on, they could even give themselves more germs by putting their hands in their mouths etc.

In a case of actual abuse your priority is the children, you should make sure there is trusted members of staff to listen to them at all times and take what they are saying seriously, it is vital that staff do not just brush it off as a silly comment or something they’ve “heard on TV”, they should do this because although they may be unsure about what the child is telling them,In the case of a child expressing to an adult about abuse, they should listen carefully, don’t walk away from the child or disrupt them whilst they are telling you, you should feel privileged as a child confiding in you about their abuse must mean they trust you, they should not do this because it will make the child feel although they are completely alone and isolated and although they are not being heard, they will lose the trust they had in them.Whilst the child is confiding in you you should make sure you try to maintain professionalism, you should do this because if you start to get personally involved and staff see you are getting personally involved, it may be hard for them to 100% trust everything you are relaying to them! it may be hard for the child to also understand what is acceptable within your relationship.