THE SCHOOL NURSE 



districts. Work was begun by the appointment of three nurses, 

 each of whom had four schools under her care. 



These early experiments demonstrated so conclusively the 

 value of the nurse's services that in 1904 the system was taken over 

 by the city and supported by municipal funds. The number of 

 nurses was greatly increased and the work rapidly spread to other 

 towns and cities. 



From the work in London came the suggestion for a nursing 

 staff in the schools of New York. Medical inspection had been 

 begun in the schools of New York in 1897, and by 1902 the number 

 of children excluded for infectious or contagious diseases had risen 

 to alarming proportions. During the latter year there were 

 nearly 18,000 such exclusions, and many schools were so depleted 

 that almost half of their children were absent. This condition 

 aroused serious protest on the part of parents and teachers. 



At this juncture Lillian D. Wald, head worker of the Henry 

 Street Nurses' Settlement, called attention to the work of the 

 school nurses in England and offered to lend the services of one 

 of her staff for an experimental demonstration of one month. 

 This first American school nurse was Lina L. Rogers. As in 

 England, so in America, it required only one demonstration to 

 convince the public of the value of the school nurse. Her 

 services were so valuable that the educational authorities, the 

 board of health, and the public were at once converted to the 

 new idea, and the movement for the employment of nurses in 

 connection with systems of medical inspection rapidly spread to 

 other cities. By means of work in the schools and in the home 

 minor ailments were promptly cared for, and the number of exclu- 

 sions greatly reduced. 



According to the investigation conducted by the Russell 

 Sage Foundation in 1911, there were at the beginning of that year 

 415 school nurses employed in 102 municipalities in the United 

 States, and 375 of these, or 90 per cent, were in the North Atlantic 

 or North Central states. About one-quarter of the cities hav- 

 ing systems of medical inspection employed school nurses, and 

 the number is rapidly increasing. Again, there was a consid- 

 erable number of cities where nurses were employed, but no physi- 

 cians. 



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