CHAPTER V 

 THE SCHOOL NURSE 



THE value of the school nurse is the one feature of medical 

 inspection of schools about which there is no division of 

 opinion. Her services have abundantly demonstrated their 

 utility, and her employment has quite passed the experimental 

 stage. The introduction of the trained nurse into the service of 

 education has been rapid, and few school innovations have met 

 with such widespread support and unqualified approval. 



The reason for this is that the school nurse supplies the 

 motive force which makes medical inspection effective. The 

 school physician's discovery of defects and diseases is of little use 

 if the result is only the entering of the fact on the record card or the 

 exclusion of the child from school. The notice sent to parents 

 telling of the child's condition and advising that the family physi- 

 cian be consulted, represents wasted effort if the parents fail to 

 realize the import of the notification or if there be no family 

 physician to consult. The nurse converts these ineffective lost 

 motions into efficient functioning by assisting the physician in his 

 examinations, personally following up the cases to insure remedial 

 action, and educating teachers, children, and parents in practical 

 applied hygiene. 



HISTORY AND PRESENT STATUS 



School nursing had its inception in London in 1894 when the 

 managers of a school in a very poor section asked a district nurse 

 to visit the school to do what she could to promote the physical 

 welfare of the children. This beginning was followed in 1898 by 

 the formation of a volunteer "School Nurses' Society" with the 

 object of supplying visiting nurses to elementary schools in four 



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