There were 2 "incidents" (otherwise known as accidents) today!
When I arrived at the nursery, several of the children were playing with child scissors while the staff were on the other side of the room. The scissors were taken off them, but apparently L'e had cut his finger, and thus his finger was treated and wrapped up.
L'e seemed more upset by the bandage than his injury. He showed me his finger, and kept going "Off! Off!", but I told him not to pull it off. He did lose his bandage a few times though, at which he'd come and report it had fallen off (whether he pulled it off I don't know). He did not act as though it was causing him pain or discomfort (i.e. treating it with care or protecting it)
Later on, while I was trying to reprimand a child at eye level, C'e slipped on the carpet behind me and banged her face against the table. She started to cry, and I calmed her down, but there was a red mark where she'd hurt herself.
I had to sign my name as a witness on Incident Forms for both children.
Moving Forward
I didn't like the idea of signing my name on those Incident Forms. I felt as though I was indirectly (or even blatantly) being blamed!
Those children were already happily playing with those scissors for who knows how long by the time I got there, and the scissors were removed when I got there. I didn't even see L'e hurt himself, he seemed alright, I left the room for about 20 minutes and when I returned he was being bandaged.
As for C'e, the other staff member was doing nappies, and therefore I was expected to keep 6 toddlers sat at the table, obediently doing nothing for about half an hour.
I can understand that it's not great for the Nursery to tell a parent "Your child was hurt while noone was looking", but does that mean they'd rather grab the nearest scapegoat?
8 comments:
'Incidents or accidents' do happen (anytime, anywhere). From my experience, parents realise this but they are more concern about how you treat their children and what actions you would take to ensure it will not happen again.
As to being treated like a scapegoat, it does happen when you are on attachment or a trainee. Next time, when you see something not right, immediately signal or call one of the staff and ask her how would they normally handle such situation. That way, you may not be required to sign on the incident form since the staff was there?
They do happen all the time, but I feel they happen more often when there aren't enough attentive staff.
Often times there are situations when the room is understaffed, or the staff are physically there, but busy doing paperwork or chatting.
I felt worst because when I arrived, the children already had all the scissors out without anyone supervising them. Then I leave the room for awhile, and when I come back, tada, an accident which feels very much like it's being blamed on me.
doyou get punished for being scapegoat? as in pay docked or anything?
Hey, Mark, sorry for the repeated postings. Had some problem with the connection on that day.
No problem. I didn't know you could take away your own postings. :) See, at least I learned something from it.
Patt: Technically I'm not paid at all, and I guess unless it was something really serious, there would only be a record of it on the nursery's own files, i.e. it wouldn't follow me around.
Still, you never know when something reappears in future to bite you in the ass. And even if there aren't any lasting effects, it kinda sucks to have fingers pointed at you for no apparent reason.
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