Kartlegging av hendelser og ulykker som medfører skade på barn i barnehage.

The purpose of this study is to map the scope of accidents and injuries in Norwegian daycare centres (barnehagen) in the calendar year 2012. The study maps the degree of severity, how accidents and injuries are managed, routines for registration and follow-up of accidents and injuries as well as training in injury and accident prevention work at daycare centres.

The study shows that there are relatively few injuries in Norwegian daycare centres in terms of the number of injuries per child in 2012. Moreover, most of the injuries are not serious and do not need follow-up. There are very few serious injuries (causing permanent injury or at worst death), and there are no descriptions of fatal accidents/injuries in the material for 2012. Injuries requiring follow-up often happen outdoors and in most cases include fractures or concussion in connection with falls or collisions. Descriptions of these accidents suggest that most injuries are from no-fault accidents. Several of the daycare centre managers interviewed state that injuries as a consequence of no-fault accidents will always happen if the children are still to be able to move around and explore.

The study finds that Norwegian boys at daycare centres are more exposed to minor injuries than girls, but there are no gender differences in the quite serious or very serious injuries. This result differs from Danish as well as Swedish studies which show an over-representation of injuries among boys. There is no difference between age groups in the frequency of injuries, regardless of the degree of seriousness. More injuries are treated by staff, or with simple first aid from a doctor or a dentist, in small daycare centres than in medium-sized and large daycare centres. Many daycare centres train their staff in preventing and managing accidents and injuries. Most daycare centres also have a contingency plan and established routines for management, registration and follow-up of accidents and injuries.

The questionnaire survey shows that the daycare centres have a high degree of safety. They also experience increasing pressure from the surrounding world which demands an even greater focus on safety, and this means that various outdoor activities such as climbing trees and playing near water are no longer allowed.

The mapping data was collected from a total of 1,693 Norwegian daycare centres using electronic questionnaires. The questions in the questionnaire deal with background information about the daycare centres as well as injuries, the scope of these and routines related to dealing with them. Furthermore, the study includes qualitative telephone interviews with managers of 20 randomly selected daycare centres in order to gain more detailed knowledge about how daycare centres work on dealing with accidents and injuries, accident prevention and their routines for registration and follow-up of accidents and injuries. The quantitative analysis primarily consists of descriptive analyses of different groups of data.

Sandseter, E.B., Sando, O.J., Pareliussen, I. & Egset, C.K. (2013). Kartlegging av hendelser og ulykker som medfører skade på barn i barnehage. Trondheim: Dronning Mauds Minne Høgskole for Barnehagelærerutdanning (DMMH)