View report page

66
SECTION 25 - HOME NURSING
This service continues to play a valuable part in the domiciliary care
of sick persons of all ages.
The treatment of tuberculosis with streptomycin and P.A.S. can be
started in the home and continued until a sanatorium bed is available.
Many non-tuberculous conditions are dealt with by injections of the
chosen antibiotic, carried out by the district nurse under the direction
of the general practitioner or surveillance of the Chest Clinic,,
In the care of old people in a number of instances the only physical
attention bestowed on them is given by the district nurses, who will not
only bath the patient but, as a labour of love, wash the hair and attend
to the feet and toe nails as well.
There is little doubt this humanitarian service not only greatly augments
the efforts of the family doctor, but spares many hospital beds for
cases which require more highly specialized nursing care and treatment.
In my opinion this type of domiciliary nursing should be developed for
the treatment of young children in their homes to obviate the necessity for
hospitalisation and separation which is known to have so distressing an
effect on the mental and emotional life of childhood. This may require
close liaison with the hospital pediatrician and his children's ward, but
such co-ordination of effort should not be beyond us.
The details of the work clearly set out in tables 24 and 25 show that
a vast field of medical surgical and obstetrical endeavour has been undertaken
by these nurses, and support is given on the administrative side by
the Superintendent Nursing Officer in co-ordinating the work with the other
medico-social services0