The role of the nursery nurse

[WheresTheEvidence]

I am a nanny who has recently gone into a nursery setting between jobs and had forgotten how much nursery workers have to do! I hardly see the staff/children interact because the staff are doing their best to get everything done.

In the course of a 10 hour day
Carry out and write risk assesments 3 X a day
Make and serve breakfast, then sweep up and do the washing up 14 babies worth of cups/plates
14 nappies X 4 times a day
Write diaries for 14 children, updating during the day
Serve lunch, sweep up and wash up all plates; heating up food that some children have brought [as and when]
Serve lunch, sweep up and wash up all plates
At the end of the day after the children have gone [anytime up until 6pm] the staff then have to stay [unpaid] to tidy/sort the room; wipe down sides, hoover, bag up rubbish etc

Once a week the staff also have to deepclean and scub the room; and all toys.

These are all done while the children are in the room up and playing. Take 1 staff doing nappies, 1 staff updating diaries, 1 staff clearing up breakfast/washing up and 1 staff settling a baby to sleep in the sleep room and you have 1 member of staff supervising 13 babies under 2. The staff are all in ratio as technically "within" the room - even if 1 is in the milk kitchen off the room and another is in the sleep room.

[FineAsWeAre]

Sounds like the routine needs some reorganisation. I've worked in nurseries for 10 years and it's never been like that. Cleaning/ washing up should only take a few minutes and all other duties should be done by the key person. Surely the diaries could wait until the washing up is done, or until a few babies are asleep at the same time. Or 4 of you take all the babies outside with you while one person quickly cleans up and another writes the diaries while watching the babies?

[HenryIX]

Sounds like a badly organised baby room.
Nappy changing is a great opportunity to interact with the child on a 1-1 basis. It builds the relationship between the child and the key person. So this can't be counted as a 'chore' that takes time away from interactions. If one person is cleaning up, no one else should be writing diaries, or changing nappies, because, as you say, the children are missing out on staff interaction.
Washing up, even 14 plates and spoons, should not take long. Dump them into hot soapy water in a bowl near the table, carry it to the kitchen, and rinse, job done.
One job at a time, and the rest of the staff with the children.

[wowbutter]

Why do you have to do risk assessments every day?

Do you not just write hem for lol your activities, and then they are done and can be updated as and when. It seems mental t need to do even one a day?

[HenryIX]

Risks need to be assessed every day, Wowbutter.
ie is the garden safe? are there bird droppings on the floor? has some passing person thrown a glass bottle over the fence? etc.

Same applies for each room, is the fire escape clear? are the toys safe and not broken? is the floor free from slip and trip hazzerds?

These things need to be checked every time you use the area, not just done once then filed away.

But they shoudn't be too time consuming, and the amount of writing should be restricted to a signature to say that you have checked it, and perhaps the date and time.

[MissJSays]

I agree, sounds like a badly organised baby room and like the routine needs switching up. It sounds like the setting isn't at all committed to the key person approach. Staff should be writing daily sheets for their own key children and doing their own key children's nappies! How are these babies forming attachments with their key person when one member of staff is getting them to sleep, someone else is feeding them, someone else is doing their nappy and then someone else has written their sheet and is handing over to mum/dad I usually start my sheets in the morning just after breakfast for all my key children due in that day. The children have dinner at 11 and then after that go straight down for sleep till around 1:30. During this time some staff go on their dinners, others stay in the room to supervise sleeps and this is when I update my sheets, so add snack, dinner, activities etc on. This is also when I do my planning and sort nappy charts out. Don't know if this helps!

[ACubed]

Risk assessment of the setting should be done in the morning effort any children come each day, and written down - any other risk assessments you can just do visually throughout the day (you're constantly risk assessing everything in a nursery), not sure what the three a day would be?

[ACubed]

Before not effort!