Theory to Practice:
MPH students help to make child care centers safer, healthier
Each spring, teams of UNH Master of Public Health (MPH) students present useful projects to public health organizations and agencies as part of their last course, the Integrating Seminar capstone project. This past spring, three graduate students assisted in developing a checklist for child care providers in collaboration with two state agencies, the Department of Environmental Services (DES) and the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS).
With more than 1,140 licensed child care centers in the state serving more than 40,000 children, the DES Environmental Health Program receives many inquiries regarding the safety and health status of childcare environments.
Last year DES met with the DHHS Healthy Child Care Program and Bureau of Child Care Licensing to see what could be done collaboratively to help child care providers ensure safe and healthy child care environments. The group determined that child care providers would benefit from a comprehensive self-assessment checklist that covers both regulatory requirements and best management practices for assuring and maintaining healthy child care environments.
And so, when Professor John Seavey, who identifies projects and supervises the MPH student teams, called DES to inquire about possibilities—they had a great project for an MPH team.
Ellen Blanchard ’08G, Pam Fortin ’08G, and Jamie Ingalls ’08G were assigned to work on the checklist. “It was easy to be motivated to work hard on this project,” says Ingalls, now a lecturer at Keene State College in the Department of Safety Studies. “This checklist is going to be used by so many different health stakeholders in the state. It was a deliverable project to help people in my own community.”
Blanchard, a school nurse in Tamworth, N.H., agrees: “We were all willing to go above and beyond the minimum requirements to produce a document that would be useful and worthwhile to those working in the field.”
For Fortin, a school nurse in Freedom, N.H.: “It was nice to make a different in a real work situation. ... And, I have a new appreciation for day-care providers.”
The three graduate students worked with DES to assist in developing the checklist. They created an easy-to-use self-assessment checklist of 130 specific requirements and evidence-based best practices that can be used by all childcare providers to help assure safe and healthy conditions. The N.H. Bureau of Child Care Licensing now plans to incorporate the checklist as part of their Child Care Program Rules Guidebook.
Director of the MPH Program in Manchester, Rosemary Caron, especially likes the capstone projects. “My emphasis in the program is theory to practice. In this course, students deal with real-world timelines and develop professional teamwork abilities. The course is based on a consultant model,” says Caron. “We’ve had student teams work with health care organizations on community needs assessments, conduct focus groups, review and update health education materials—all in a matter of weeks. Often they present their findings to a managerial group or board of directors.”
In this case, both state agencies, DES and DHHS, were pleased with the result. For information on the self-assessment checklist, please contact Jessica Morton, DES Environmental Health Program, at (603) 271-3911, or Denise Corvino, DHHS Bureau of Child Care Licensing, at (603) 271-4590.