The Nursery School Absenteeism Surveillance System (NSASSy), which includes 40% of all nursery schools in Japan, has a degree of effectiveness that is difficult to prove: nursery schools and areas ...without NSASSy cannot be evaluated for their incidence of infectious diseases as precisely as those with NSASSy. Instead, we examine nursery school countermeasures against infectious diseases by considering the endogeneity bias of NSASSy.
After sending questionnaires to 500 Tokyo metropolitan and nearby nursery schools in November 2022, we received their responses through the end of 2022. Questionnaires asked about infection control measures of nursery schools: (1) cooperation with public health centers; (2) cooperation with staff; (3) cooperation with children's parents; (4) precautions among children; (5) countermeasure systems; (6) precaution systems; (7) recording of health conditions of children; (8) usefulness of studying while students; and (9) usefulness of training at nursery schools. Ordered probit with inverse probability weighted adjustment was used as the estimation procedure. The explanatory variable was a dummy variable for using NSASSy. Probability in weight was estimated using the first-step probit for NSASSy. Explanatory variables were a dummy variable for publicly funded nursery schools and a dummy variable for local governments that had adopted NSASSy.
We analyzed 193 nursery schools. NSASSy was negative and associated significantly with (3) cooperation with children's parents and (7) recording of health conditions of children. These countermeasures were more likely to have been taken by NSASSy nursery schools.
Previous studies have reported the inappropriate administration of medication at nursery schools by the staff and a lack of drug-related information from caregivers at the time of request. However, ...the situation concerning medication administration at nursery schools from the mothers’ perspective is unknown and it is not clear what information the mothers provided to nursery staff at the request. We conducted an online survey between April and May 2019 regarding the administration of medication at the nursery school with input from 600 mothers. Overall, 510 (85%) individuals replied that the requests to administer medication were acceptable for all or some of the medications. Application forms for medications were used by 91% of the 301 mothers who had previously made such requests. Although information including the child’s name, medication times, illness of the child, parent’s name, and dosage form was specified by over 70% of mothers, drug-related information such as effectiveness, side effects, and drug interactions was insufficient. In total, 41 instances of inappropriate medication administration by staff were reported by 35 mothers. It is suggested that the drug information sheets provided by community pharmacies should make up for inadequate drug-related information on application forms for medications to avoid the risk of adverse events and reduce staff burden. Toward this end, it is necessary to provide easily understandable information sheets for nursery staff, as the medication is usually administered by nursery staff, not a nurse. Community pharmacists should support these measures as pharmaceutical professionals.
In this paper, we will track and discuss the changes in enrollment numbers of infants in nursery schools since 1960 in order to estimate future enrollment trends. First, the trajectory of enrollment ...numbers in Yamaguchi Prefecture is established. Second, an attempt is made to estimate future numbers of infants who will attend nursery school (and thus facility and capacity needs) by considering attendance trends as they relate to the number of infants in each household type. In addition, a consideration is made concerning whether policy effectively addresses supply and demand for childcare in the intermediate and mountainous areas of the region, where the population has decreased. Birthrate figures are added using the current facilities planning strategy of the district entities. The results are as follows: 1) In the whole prefecture, the number of nursery schools and their total capacity increased from 1960 to 1980. This was due to the increasing birthrate: a larger number of infants were born and needed childcare. From 1980 to 1995, as the birthrate decreased, the number of nursery schools and total capacity also declined. The number of children attending nursery school trended upward with the increase in double-income households. In rural areas, however, the downward trend continued due to the declining population and fewer households . This has been especially noticeable since 2000.2) The results of these calculations show that the number of infants attending nursery school has been decreasing slightly since 2005, when there were 25,600 children. The number of infants needing childcare increases with the trend of double-income households. The results of our calculations cause us to estimate that 22,700 children will need childcare by 2035. The trend of childcare enrollment numbers also relates to the income levels of the households; those with lower employment income show a downward tendency in attendance, particularly in rural districts. The enrollment number of children in nursery schools in 2005 decreased to 6,400 and continues to decline. These results allow us to estimate 3,900 children attending nursery school by 2035. There is a larger decrease in the number of infants attending nursery school in rural areas than in urban areas.3) Results showed that this estimation of nursery schools and their capacities was effective by defining the rate of change. There was a small decrease from 2015 (209 nursery schools for a capacity of 19,900). In 2035, those numbers will be slightly different (181 schools for a capacity of 18,300) in urban areas.On the other hand, the number of nursery schools and capacity decreased steeply from 2015 (when there were 92 nursery schools for a capacity of 5,490) to the estimated number in 2035 (60 nursery schools for a capacity of 3,630). Results show a downward trend in the rural districts in comparison to urban areas. Therefore, a realistic and effective method to ensure an adequate number of schools and capacity in the future can be created from tracking vacancy trends year by year in both the intermediate and mountainous areas.
This study aimed to cross-sectionally examine the association of work-related stressors and coping strategies with work engagement levels in a sample of nursery-school teachers. Questionnaires ...regarding work-related stressors, coping strategies, and work engagement were administered to 270 teachers. The results of multiple regression analysis indicated that the levels of stressors regarding understanding children and compensation and the coping strategy of giving up were negatively associated with work engagement levels. Work engagement levels were significantly associated with the problem-solving coping strategy and stressors related to understanding children and differences between individual beliefs and school policies. Particularly, teachers adopting the problem-solving coping strategy to a greater extent exhibited a significant negative association between stressors regarding understanding children and work engagement levels. These findings suggested that the problem-solving coping strategy does not effectively enhance work engagement levels among teachers with greater work-related stressors regarding understanding children. Therefore, this strategy may not always be suitable for nursery-school teachers.【Research Impact】This study examines how nursery-school teachers should cope with work-related problems for work motivation. The results indicate that any coping strategies used by teachers with difficulty in understanding the behavior of children may be ineffective. Therefore, interventions should target the entire nursery school and individual teachers to increase work engagement.
El espacio escolar es un elemento esencial en el proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje de la primera infancia. El objetivo de este estudio, que parte de una investigación más amplia financiada por el ...Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte (CAS17/00125), es analizar las posibilidades pedagógicas y uso del espacio en una escuela infantil, obteniendo mayor comprensión de la conceptualización, configuración espacial y funcionalidad que realiza el equipo docente desde la perspectiva de ambientes de aprendizaje. Se realiza un estudio de caso en profundidad en una escuela infantil de Huelva (España). Las técnicas de recogida de datos empleadas son de corte cualitativo: entrevistas semiestructuradas, observaciones y análisis de documentos. Los resultados evidencian una concepción y uso tradicional del espacio basados en una pedagogía adultocéntrica. Sobresale el uso del espacio como contenedor de la actividad docente, detectándose una jerarquización de los escenarios liderada por el espacio-aula. Como conclusiones se destaca la necesidad de repensar el espacio desde la perspectiva de ambiente de aprendizaje, para destacar el carácter educativo y la importancia que todos los espacios escolares tienen a la hora de generar oportunidades educativas en favor de la infancia.
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