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Extra curricular activities of health visitors included both sound and vision
broadcasting, and teaching at Technical Colleges and Colleges of Further
Education.
Changes forecast for the future indicate that there may be greater demands
on the health visitor. There is an increased awareness on the part of family
doctors of the contribution being made to their patients' well-being by the Local
Authority nursing services, and there is every indication that if the staffing
situation remains favourable attachments of staff to general practices will be the
developing pattern, co-existing with the present pattern of work.
No matter where children under the age of 5 years are cared for it is the
responsibility of the health visitor to keep an eye on their health, both mental
and physical, and in the foreseeable future she will still be the most readily
available source of help to mothers in time of stress.
Ancillary Staff
Clinic auxiliaries and clinic nurses make a valuable contribution to the
nursing services. They enabled health visitors to be relieved of duties which do
not require their specialised training.
After a period of in-service training, the majority of clinic nurses become
school nurses, and undertake duties offering greater responsibility and scope.
There are always a number of student health visitors sponsored by the Borough
who originally commenced as clinic nurses.
Health Visiting and Midwifery Students
A total of 17 health visitor students from Borough Polytechnic, the
University of Surrey and Croydon Polytechnic received their practical training
in the Borough.
In addition to Part II Student Midwives placed for three months, an
additional 24 student midwives were given generalised experience in the
Community Health Services.
Other Students and Visitors to the Department
Requests for visits of observation and facilities for practical work placement
of students continued to increase. Periods involved varied from single visits to
programmes of several weeks.