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They were required "to visit from house to house, irrespective of
creed or circumstance, in such localities as their superintendents directed.
They must carry with them carbolic powder, explain its use, leave it where it
was accepted} direct the attention of those they visited tothe evils of bad
smells, want of fresh air, impurities of all kinds} give hints to mothers on
feeding and clothing their children} where they find sickness, assist in promoting
the comfort of the invalid by personal help and report such cases to their
superintendent. They must urge the importance of cleanliness, thrift and
temperance on all possible occasions. They are desired to get as many as possible
to join the mothers’ meetings of their districts, to use all their influence to
induce those they visit to attend regularly at their respective places of
worship and to send the children to school".
In I89O Manchester Corporation began to pay some salaries and the
Medical Officer of Health became responsible for the direction of the work of
these health visitors.
Miss Florence Nightingale appreciated the urgent need for special
training for health visitors or "health missionsrs" as she called them. "The
needs of home health bringing require different but not lower qualifications
and are more varied. They require tact and judgment unlimited to prevent the work
being regarded as interference and becoming unpopular.’
In 1891 - 2 she persuaded the North Buckinghamshire County Council
to inaugurate the first training course for health visitors. Sixteen lectures
were given followed by discussion and the syllabus covered subjects still studied
by modern student health visitors. Sixteen women attended the lectures, twelve
entered for the examination} only six obtained the certificate.
In 1909 the Health Visitors’ (London) Order laid down the first
statutory qualifications for health visitors and in 1916 the Medical Officer
of the Local Government Board recommended that a health visitor should possess two
of the three following qualifications: a nurse’s training, a sanitary inspector's
certificate and the certificate of the Central Midwives’ Board.
In 1925 the training of health visitors became the responsibility of
the Ministry of Health} in 1962 the Health Visiting and Social Work (Training)
Act set up the Council for the Training of Health Visitors the first duty of which
was to present a new syllabus of training which came into operation in October, 1965.
Although the health visitor is now a familiar figure in our daily life
and times, her training and responsibilities are not always known and in this my
first Annual Report I have commented on some of the background against which the
service has evolved.
The establishment of health visitors for the Borough is 25. On 1st April,
1965 the staff in post consisted of 17 maternity and child welfare health visitors,
2 chest clinic health visitors attached to St. Helier Hospital and one geriatric health
visitor (shared with the London Borough of Merton) and the Superintendent Health
Visitor. 4 sessional nurses (S.R.N.) were transferred to the Borough and 3 more
were appointed during the year. By the end of the year each major clinic also
had part-time clerical assistance. A public health nurse was appointed but due
to the pressure of work and shortage of staff in the Welfare Section she was used
mainly for urgent field welfare work. The employment of sessional nurses and
clinic clerks is in accordance with the accepted policy of allocating less skilled
work to less highly qualified staff as appropriate and it is hoped that the level
of clerical assistance in clinics will increase in line with the development of
services to allow health visitors more time for family visiting.
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