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42
Student Visits to the Area
During 1970, students from the Harrow Technical College taking a
pre-nursing course attended one day a week for three weeks in small
groups of five students to have an introduction to community health work
in the London Borough of Harrow. They visited child health clinics, day
nurseries and accompanied health visitors on some suitable home visits.
An introductory lecture was given to the students in the Technical College
before they started their observation visits and a written report was
presented by all students in a seminar during their last session. The
students and tutors found the experience most useful.
Student nurses from the Middlesex Hospital visited Harrow in
January, April, July and October. A total of 24 nurses received this
training to observe activities of community care, clinics for infants and
toddlers, special hearing tests, home visits to mothers and babies, school
children and senior citizens. The programme was followed up by a
discussion at the hospital with their tutors and a senior representative
from the health visiting team.
Similar programmes have been arranged for student nurses from the
Edgware General Hospital and 39 students have visited the area in 1970.
Senior pupils at Heathfield School, trainee medical social workers, student
teachers, overseas senior nursing staff, senior pupils from Blackwell
School, have visited the department, also health visitors from other parts
of the country.
Training
Health visitors' training continues under the revised rules submitted
by the Council for the Training of Health Visitors to the Minister in 1965 in
accordance with Section 2 of the Health Visitors and Social Work
Training Act 1962.
Harrow is responsible for the training of sponsored health visitor
students and the training of integrated students in health visiting. During
their training as state registered nurses, district nurses and health visitors,
which takes four years for the three certificates, students receive practical
health visiting training in the Local Authority under the supervision of a
health visitor fieldwork instructor. In the third and fourth year, the same
fieldwork instructor provides tuition for the student to give support and
continuity of instruction. Meetings of tutors from various colleges for the
training of health visitors and fieldwork instructors take place at regular
intervals to discuss the progress of the students and to link theoretical and
practical work. The fieldwork instructor submits written reports to the
college of the progress of her students every term.
Harrow has taken part in the training of health visitors with three
London training schools—Chiswick Polytechnic, North Western Polytechnic
and the Royal College of Nursing. This has been the last training
course of the Royal College of Nursing.