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48
7. FOLLOWING UP.
After medical inspection and the notification to parents and
teachers of discovered defects, a certain time, except in cases of
urgency, is allowed parents in which to procure hospital, private
or other treatment for their children. Where suitable treatment
can be given at one of the school clinics as in aural, eye or dental
defects, this is offered and an acceptance paper is forwarded to the
parent for him to sign and return. When an acceptance of treatment
is received it is filed and the children are summoned to attend
for specified treatment in rotation. In other cases, e.g., in ringworm
of scalp or enlarged tonsils and adenoids, hospital letters
are available. After a certain period, usually a month, the school
nurse visits the homes of the children to find whether treatment
has been obtained and to urge the necessity of obtaining remedial
measures where nothing has been done. This process is a considerable
part of the nurses' work, for while many parents are
only too glad to carry out the doctor's suggestions, others either
through indifference or through private difficulties defer doing so,
and in some cases the nurse has to visit as many as six times
before the desired result is attained.
In this work the Medical Officer is greatly dependent on his
school nurse for his results, for coercive measures have little to
commend them and are fraught with difficulties. In fact, prosecution
except in isolated cases of defiance may do infinite harm—
it may be rankly unjust in the case selected, it fosters a hostile
attitude on the part of parents towards school medical work
generally, and tends tc make parents regard the nurse as an
official rather than a friend. Thus the results of following-up
reflect to a large extent the suitability of a nurse for her special
work. A tactless nurse who hopes to drive will accomplish
nothing and be received with open hostility, whereas one with
ready sympathy and ample patience will achieve much—the most
hostile will unbend, the most truculent will yield, and she will
be greeted with cordiality where formerly suspicion and distrust
held sway. The path of the school nurse has not been-an easy
one to tread, but gradually she is asserting her individuality and
is becoming more and more a valued friend to whom parents are
ever ready to resort for advice not only in medical matters but on
all subjects affecting their social welfare. This is indeed a
triumph; it is a harvest all school nurses may reap.