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236
SECTION IV.
FOLLOWING UP.
There are 19 school nurses, 17 of whom devote 5/11 of their
time to school work, and two who are employed whole time in
school clinics. In addition there are two masseuses, one of whom
devotes all her time to school work and the other half her time,
the other half being occupied with Maternity and Child Welfare,
There are two whole-time dental assistants.
Perhaps the most arduous part of a school nurse's work, and
certainly the most important and valuable, is home visiting.
This work demands perseverance, tact and good nature if satisfactory
results are to be achieved. A small increase in the number
of these visits is recorded in 1930 in spite of a heavy incidence of
sickness in the Health Visiting Staff.
In addition the nurses assist at routine and special medical
inspections in the schools and pay periodical visits to schools for
cleanliness surveys.
The results of the cleanliness surveys show a steady improvement
in the state of the children. With the helpful co-operation
of the Chief School Attendance Officer and his staff, one or two
of the recalcitrant offenders have been proceeded against in
Court, others have been brought before the Committee and
warned. Since these steps were taken, the nurses report a decided
change for the better in those schools which previously gave
persistently unsatisfactory findings. There are still, however,
certain families which play a prominent part in spoiling the
figures for some of the schools.
The following table summarises the visits paid, etc., in
connection with these duties:—
School Visits.
Visits to Schools re Cleanliness 40
Visits to School Departments re Cleanliness 357
Number of children inspected for cleanliness (first
inspection) 60662
Number of children inspected (subsequent inspections)
4263
Number of children found unclean (first inspection) 2505
Number of children found unclean (subsequent inspections)
1123