190 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 



of the visiting nurse is normally pretty much the same in rural 

 and in urban communities. She should be available for advice 

 and help wherever there is illness and her services should be as 

 much educational and preventive as curative or ministrative. 

 Her spare time might well be spent in instructing mothers' clubs 

 and similar organizations, in social center or institute and other 

 extension talks, in inspecting school children, and in giving 

 occasional instructive talks to them regarding the care of their 

 health and that of the community. No other person perhaps 

 can be of equal help to a community in health protection, for no 

 other comes so intimately into the lives of the people. It is 

 probably desirable that a small fee, of 25 or 50 cents, should be 

 charged for each visit she makes, but this fee should always be re- 

 mitted upon the request of the person benefiting from the services. 

 In no case should her salary depend in whole or in part upon the 

 fees collected, but it should be met out of the regular funds of the 

 county treasury, and the laws of the State should be so modified 

 as to permit of this, where such modification is necessary. Hers 

 is as important a function as that of any other public servant in 

 the county. Transportation is one of the most difficult problems 

 to be met in this connection, but it is by no means insurmountable. 

 Another urgent health need for the rural community is that 

 every dweller in the country should have easy access to a hospital 

 when there is need for such. Most of our larger cities are more 

 or less adequately supplied with hospitals and in most of these 

 there is always a limited number of beds which are available even 

 to the very poor. Only the wealthier country people can now 

 afford to make use of the city hospitals. There is great need of 

 county or district hospitals in sufficient number and with facili- 

 ties adequate for the care of those who cannot receive proper 

 attention at home. In most cases the oversight of the visiting 

 nurse will insure sufficient expert sanitary care for the person 

 who is ill in his own home, but in a certain number of cases 

 either the gravity of the disease, the lack of home facilities, or 

 some other consideration makes it highly desirable, if not im- 

 perative, that hospital treatment be available. Hospitals are, 

 of course, expensive and rarely pay for themselves, much less 

 would they be able to do so if operated on the scale and for the 

 purposes here suggested. But hospitals are not so expensive as 



