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53
1st Aid and the School Service has, by popular request been extended to
include secondary as well as primary school would-be teachers, and we welcome
this opportunity to encourage closer liaison between the teaching and community
nursing professions. The Dental Exhibition again demanded our attention,
although "The Expectant Mother" found it difficult to compete with phantom
heads, the dental chair etc. where there was lively audience participation.
Nevertheless it is encouraging to find that, when questioned, the youngsters
were very knowledgeable about the diet and hygiene needs for good health.
Monthly meeting continued with the object of disseminating information,
examining new visual aids and discussing course contents for various teaching
activities. Whilst appreciating the need to concentrate on subjects such as
Family Planning, Venereal Diseases, Smoking, Drugs and Alcoholism, it has
always been the endeavour to include them in a general course where
individual responsibility for good physical, mental and social health can be
related to our teaching.
Training
Health visitor students from the Polytechnic of the South Bank, and
Croydon Technical College are placed in Lambeth for field-work training, along
with student midwives from King's College Hospital and the South London
Hospital. Fourteen students sponsored by Lambeth began their Health Visitor
training in September. None of these students were placed in the Borough for
their training.
Although it would appear from the statistics that the number of visitors
to the establishments of the Directorate of Health has decreased, it must be
remembered that the Day Nurseries — always a popular place of interest — are
now in the Directorate of Social Services, and, therefore, visits to them are
not included in our figures.
Happily, liaison with all the Directorates and I.L.E.A. continues smoothly,
and participation in each other's training programmes has become well established.
Requests for Community Experience for Hospital Staff continues, and
plans have been made for selected nurses to spend longer periods at the Centres
when the new G.N.C. and C.M.B. syllabi are implemented. Bearing in mind
that the health visitor students and student midwives must have fieldwork,
supervised practical work and alternative experience throughout the year,
there is a need for constant appraisal of visits and lectures so that the efficiency
of the staff and the well being of clients shall not be sacrificed in the cause
of "training". It is gratifying to find that there is no lack of enthusiasm for