View report page

visitors and participating in student training, Nursing Officers and
Health Visitors taught at various schools in the Borough as well as in the
Schools of Nursing at Fulham, Hammersmith and the Royal Masonic Hospitals
and at the same time the Non-Medical Supervisor of Midwives continued to
assist in the teaching of Pupil Midwives at Queen Charlotte's Hospital.
These pupils also gained practical experience within the Community Services
of the Borough.
General Practitioner/Health Visitor Attachment
It is now widely accepted that there are many advantages in attaching a
Health Visitor to a Doctor's practice. In this situation she works closely
alongside the General Practitioner and is able to see the wider problems
of the whole family. Mothers can bring their babies to the surgery for
immunisation and general advice and there is a continuity of care
throughout. It is therefore, disappointing that although ten Health Visitors
are already attached to general practice, some of the other local Doctors
have no room to accommodate either a Health Visitor or a Nurse because
they practise from lock-up premises. In these instances the building of
Health Centres would do much to facilitate and encourage closer links
between Health Visitors and Doctors.
Health Visitors and Hospitals
A period of illness in hospital is an episode in a person's life during which
he is away from the community in which he lives, and consequently, close
co-operation between the community and the hospital is essential for the
total care of the patient. In this, Health Visitors as well as Nurses have
an important part to play in a united service and it is pleasing that one
Health Visitor is attached to the Paediatric Department of Fulham Hospital
whilst another is attached to the Radio Therapy Unit. Further developments
of this service may take place at the Neo-Natal Department of Hammersmith
Hospital and it is hoped to introduce a Health Visitor there early in the
New Year. In their everyday work all Health Visitors are in close contact
with hospitals over individual patients from their area,especially when
those patients are young children or mothers with young families.
Surveys
Because the Health Visitor has a unique knowledge of the families in her
area she continued to give valuable assistance with the following surveys
taking place locally:
1. National Child Development Study
2. Greater London Council Research and Development Unit, Spina
Bifida Survey
3. Medical Research Council, National Survey of Health and Development
4. Guy's Hospital Department of Community Medicine, Study into the
Attachment of Local Authority Nursing Staff to General Practice.
Refresher Courses and In-Service Training
Four members of staff undertook the Midwifery Refresher Course in accordance
with the statutory ruling of the Central Midwives Board. Two Health Visitors
attended Management Appreciation Courses and one attended a Refresher Course
run by the Health Visitors Association.
Two Health Visitors successfully undertook the Field Work Instructor's
Course which will qualify them to train students in the practical skills
of Health Visiting and in addition, two District Nurses were successful in
their Practical Work Instructor's Course. Newly appointed School Nurses
attended the Introductory Course run by the London Boroughs Training
C.11