UNIVERSITY STUDY EXAMINES DAY CARE

Cape Girardeau County's day-care sites also could help provide health screenings and immunizations, a study suggests.

The study by three students in the master's degree in nursing program at Southeast Missouri State University said there is a need for more health promotion within day-care facilities.

"You don't think about day-care centers being sites for health promotion," student Kathy Casteel said, "but they could sponsor days when children could undergo particular health screenings and physical exams or receive immunizations."

That would allow children access to health care without parents having to take off time from work, said student Carlene Stanley, a registered nurse at St. Francis Medical Center.

Casteel also works for St. Francis Medical Center as a community education instructor at the hospital's information center in Jackson.

Also involved in the study was Julie Horecker, director of nursing at Park Avenue Health Care in Carbondale, Ill.

In the study, the students suggested the possibility of day-care facilities offering sick-care areas where parents could take ill children, avoiding the need to stay home from work.

"A lot of the parents and a lot of the workers voiced concern over what to do with ill children," Casteel said.

Stanley said that in other parts of the country, some day-care centers offer sick-care areas for children.

The students said St. Francis Medical Center's "Rainy Day Kids" program could serve as a model for sick-care programs in this area.

The hospital provides 24-hour coverage for sick children of St. Francis employees.

The study found licensed day-care facilities in the county are well-regulated in terms of health, safety, dietary standards and sanitation.

In all, the study this fall looked at 17 licensed day-care centers and 36 licensed day-care homes.

"We talked to parents and workers," Casteel said. "We visited the centers. We observed what was going on and looked at statistical data that were available."

A 1992 report identified 1,462 children in day care in Cape Girardeau County, which meets 46 percent of the local child-care need.

Casteel said the cost locally of full-time day-care at a center averages about $50 to $68 a week for toddlers and preschoolers, and from $70 to $98 a week for infants.

The centers also charge enrollment fees of $10 to $25.

Home-care providers charge between $45 and $79 a week to care for children of all ages.

"It is affordable," Casteel said. "But it still takes a significant amount of your paycheck."

Lower income families generally don't use day care, even though there is some financial assistance available to them, Casteel said.