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Program:
Child Care Health Consultant at the Southeast Regional Key

Funding:
Pennsylvania Early Learning Keys to Quality is Pennsylvania’s quality improvement system for early care and education and after-school programs.  The Southeast Regional Keys provides services to enrolled early education programs in Philadelphia, Montgomery and Delaware Counties.  The Southeast Regional Key contracts with La Salle Neighborhood Nursing Center to provide a nurse health consultant.

Dates:
2008 - 2010

Purpose:
According to Caring for Our Children, the National Health and Safety Performance Standards for child care programs, “a Health Consultant is a health professional who has an interest in and experience with children, knowledge of resources and regulations, and is comfortable linking health resources with facilities that provide primarily education and social service” (American Academy of Pediatrics, American Public Health Association, National Resource Center for Health and Safety in Child Care, 2002). This program places health as a focus in child care and early education by offering on-site, telephone and email health consultation. In addition to consultation, La Salle Neighborhood Nursing Center consultants are Pennsylvania Quality Assurance System (PQAS) certified to provide professional development to child care practitioners. Professional development can be contracted and developed with individual agencies. Current topics offered include:

• ABCs of Asthma
• ABCs of Autism
• Health and Safety for Infants and Toddlers
• Managing Illness in Early Care and Education
• Obesity Prevention and Nutrition in Child Care
• PedFACTS – Pediatric First Aid
• Promoting Child Safety: Child Abuse Awareness and Responsibilities for Child Care Professionals
• Summer Safety

Staff:
Maryellen Malak Madden, M.Ed., BSN, RN provides child care health consultation with the Southeast Regional Key.  Sharon Starr, MSN, RN provides supervision, consultation with the Early Childhood Education Linkage System (ECELS), and professional development services.

Contact:
Maryellen Malak Madden at 215.271.1267 ext 277 or on the Ask a Nurse Page at http://www.seregionalkey.org/nurse.htm

Sharon Starr at 215-951-5034