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and that on average a health visitor made twenty visits a day or 10
lisits for a half day spent in home visiting.
One third of the health visitors' time is spent in home visiting,
the rest of her time is spent in advising and teaching in Child
welfare Clinics, Ante-natal Clinics, Mothercraft Classes, School
Nursing and in clerical work. The keeping of records and report
writing is a vital part of the work. This leaves very little time indeed
for Group Health Education talks.
Home visits are recorded for statistical purposes as follows:
1. To children under 5 years. This group are the
basic home visiting population.
2. Persons aged 65 years or over. This caseload
is rapidly increasing.
3. Others - in which all other persons visited are
included.
It is the latter group which holds the greatest number of problems
for it may include mentally disordered persons, patients discharged
from hospital, expectant mothers, the physically handicapped, and
these visits may be made because of failure to attend a hospital
appointment, or failure to register the birth of a baby; or perhaps to
assess the need of a recuperative holiday in relation to the patient's
is ability, or even to visit an aged person whose condition may be
Nursing anxiety a distant friend. The visits themselves are
frequently requested by a general practitioner, a hospital Almoner, a
councillor, or even a relative or the patients themselves.
Home visits of this nature are often difficult and require all the
gentle art of persuasion which is the keynote of the work in which
are health visitors are regarded as Specialists. The visits may be
lengthy for the interviews entail: -
( a) assessment of need.
(b) advice re maintenance of health and
prevention of illness and accidents.
(c) arrangements for supportive services
(d) advice to relatives relating to care
of the patient.
(e) follow up visits after discharge from
hospital treatment or prior to hospital
admission.
To Sum Up the activities of the health visitors is to list in long
retail the many facts of support, advice and teaching which are done
peoples' own homes, in the clinics, in the schools and often in the
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