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SCHOOL NURSING—HOME VISITING
5,346 home visits were made by school nurses—a 75% increase on previous years.
This increase is a significant pointer to the future of the school health service. As
the emphasis of school clinics changes from the treatment of minor medical defects to
that of an advisory centre for social and developmental problems of childhood, so the
school nurse must increasingly be the link between the doctor in the clinic and the
patient's home and school background.
School nursing is rapidly departing from its old traditions of cleanliness inspections
and the treatment of impetigo etc., and widening its scope to include the problems of
childhood and adolescence, and health education in the schools and homes. Considerable
progress along these lines has been made this year as the home visiting figures
show, and the enthusiasm of the older members of the school nursing staff has been
enlivened by the recruiting of new, younger members during the year.
Hospital follow-up
School children who had been in hospital during the year were followed up after
discharge to see if any problems had developed as a result of " hospitalisation."
During 1957, 175 children between the ages of 4½ and 15 years were followed up
from 7 hospitals, of which the majority (169) were in 4 hospitals where daily visiting was
allowed, except in 1 hospital where it was allowed on 6 days a week.
Of the 169 children, one parent refused to co-operate but 150 apparently neither
fretted while in hospital nor showed any alteration in behaviour on return home. Of
the remaining 18 the ages ranged from 4 years 6 months to 11 years 6 months and their
stay from 2 days to 18 days. 7 of these were miserable for a time while in hospital but
settled reasonably well and were settled at home. Of 5 who were fretful or very upset
while in hospital, 4 settled down at home quite happily— the fifth appeared unhappy
and was still fretful some weeks later (8 years 1 month). Of 4 whose behaviour was
unchanged or liked hospital, 2 missed hospital when they returned home, one was an
only child. The other 2 appeared to cry more easily than before and were nervous.
One child of 4½ years fretted all the time for her mother and the parents were told not
to visit her, but she rapidly settled down at home after a stay of 8 days in hospital. One
child of 5 years 9 months was very quiet in hospital; he was afraid of having meals in
bed as he thought he might spill something on the sheets. He cried when his visitors
left and although he was only in for 4 days for adenoidectomy and antrum washout, he
had not settled at home and had nocturnal enuresis on two occasions which he associated
with dreams of the operating table.
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