Assessing health and safety in early care and education programs: development of the CCHP health and safety checklist.
BACKGROUND
To assess health and safety in early care and education (ECE) programs, an objective, standardized instrument was developed based on the recommended national health and safety standards.


METHODS
The California Childcare Health Program Health and Safety Checklist was developed by conducting a literature review, identifying a gold standard, revising and updating the original Checklist, consulting with an advisory group, and pilot testing the Checklist. The Checklist included 66 items grouped into 10 subscales, and each item was rated on a three-point scale: meeting, partially meeting, or not meeting national standards. Face, content, and construct validity along with measures of reliability, inter-rater reliability, and internal consistency were established.


RESULTS
The Checklist was completed in 127 ECE centers. The highest subscale score was for emergency preparedness and the lowest was for handwashing routines and equipment maintenance. Cronbach's alpha subscale scores ranged from moderate to strong (0.27 to 0.70).


CONCLUSIONS
The Checklist provides valid and reliable information to assess adherence to key national health and safety standards and objective data to develop intervention programs to improve health and safety in ECE programs.
Alkon
Abbey
A
Department of Family Health Care Nursing, University of California, San Francisco School of Nursing, San Francisco, CA 94143-0606, USA. abbey.alkon@nursing.ucsf.edu
To
Kim
K
Wolff
Mimi
M
Mackie
Joanna F
JF
Bernzweig
Jane
J
D002648:Child; D002654:Child Care; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004493:Education; D006801:Humans; D012449:Safety