[Report 1920] / Medical Officer of Health, Salop / Shropshire County Council.

  • Shropshire Council
Date:
1920
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1920] / Medical Officer of Health, Salop / Shropshire County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    32/62 (page 20)
    TRAINING OF NURSES. The Nurses Registration Act, 191C), is now in force. This Act and the rules made under it lay down the conditions for registration and training of nurses. The training of nurses is a matter of the utmost imj)ortance to the health of the people, and consequently of direct concern to Public Plealth Authorities. .My princi])al reasons for attaching so much importance to the public health training of nurses are (1) .'V large ajid incrcashtg proportion of nurses are engaged in district nursing. (2) A district nurse, and more particularly a district nurse who acts as a Health Visitor should be an educator. This education by the district nurse should be a real thing and should play an important part in the general education of the public in the principles governing healthy living. In the ])ast our public health activities have mosth' consisted of measures carried out by ])ublic authorities to help and ‘ proieci ’ the people. It is pretty generally recognised that the greatest improvement in health and physique is now to be effected, by bringing the scientific information that we have on such matters as fooil, e.xercise, effect of fresh air, s])read of infection, etc., to the knowledge of the people so that they may help themselves. In the absence of a medical ])rofession trained and paid for this work, we shall have to rely principally on the district nurse. (3) Even in hospital, the nurses’ work is mostly concerned with personal hygiene and the hygienic surroundings of the patient. (4) A thovough couise of h3'giene based on physiology' and anatomy would be a far better training for a nurse than the smattering of medicine and surgery whicli she is at present tauglit. Unfortunately the training of a nurse is almost entirely in the hands of the hospital staffs ajul is directed naturally' to forming a highlv trained ])erson for this particular work, work that certainly requires much less thought ajul initiative than that of a district nurse. Vduit is wanted is a clear recognition of the supreme importance of the position of the district nurse and of the necessity for making the teaching of hygiene in its widest sense the basis of all nurses’ training. I'or this purj^ose wherever possible this branch of teaching should be placed under the supervision of persons specially trained in public health, ami the nurse should be given the opportunity of seeing the ])ractical application outside, of the teaching given in the lios])ital. There should be no difficulty whatever in finding time during the three or four years’ training for this work if some of the drudgery that the nurse at })resent has to go through were omitted. I hav’e dealt somewhat fully with this matter because I feel it to be one of the questions of outstanding impoi'tance to the health of the people and that this is the time for full considera¬ tion of the question. That the nursing council have not overlooked this question is shown by the following quotation from the preface to their draft syllabus of training :— “ Public Sanitation and Public Health are subjects of growing importance in the training of a nurse, both to widen her outlook and to counteract the limited ^isioJl some¬ times acquired in sick wards. They should be brought to her notice from the out.set and kept in full view throughout her training.” Unless, however, action is taken by those responsible for tiie health of the public to make the training a real one, it is not likely that much will be effected.