The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1908-09-20
NEW YoRK's SCHOOL NURSES.
They Now Number FIfty-Incidents Of
Their Work.

NEW YORk'S SCHOOL NURSES.
They Now Number VIrty-Incidents Of
Their Work.
The staff Of SCHOOL nurses, as they are
called. In the New York schools now num-
bers over fifty. The first nurse was APP
pointed just four years ago.
The thing was ar experiment and the
appointment therefore was for only one
month and without a salary. Miss Lana
L. Rogers, a hospital graduate. was the
appointee.
The fifty nurses at present employed
are scattered through the five borongha
Of the city. The first duty of the school
nurses day, writes n Of them In the
Craftsman. Is routine inspection,
This consists in having the pupils in
every class room. pass before her in single
file. each child pausing long enough to
permit a brief examination OF head. hair
eyes, teeth and throat. Note La also made
Of tho general condition of neatnoss, A
close watch is Kept for symptoms OF any
serious ailment. When such cases are
found they are promptly reported 10 the
medical inspector. tho Health Department
physician in whose district the school ID
located.
Perhaps the chief benefit Of routine in
spection is tho part 1t plays in the warfare
against trachoma, This IL an eye al
lection, and Is so prevalent in the tene-
ment districts Of New York city that more
than two hundred thousand cases are
treated in the course Of a year. TIT
nurse does not treat trachoma. Suffer
ers are either attended by specialists and
the medical inspectors at the two city dis
pensaries devoted TO this work, or they
are sent, circumstances permitting. 70
their W physicians for treatment. TIT
nurses duty is to report promptly q case
Of t~raohoma, and the inspector gives the
necessary instructions.
The children in many cases d thefr
parents the greatest obstace to following
the instructions Of nurse and inspector
In Public School So. on Eighteenth
street, New York city, a child was IN
structed to go to the dispensary for treat
ment. Days passed and the instructions
were ignored. The aso given wae
that the mother refused to permit the
child to do as she had been told. The
nurse attached to the school called on the
mother, who, when the nature OF the En-
rand was revealed, seized a fatiron from
the hot stove beside her and holding II
close to the nurses face shouted. Get
out O. here! | takes no orders from the
likes o. you
The nurse stood her ground undis-
mayed and the woman quailed at sight OF
the big brass badge Of authority worn by
every nurse. Sullenly she agreed TO take
the child to the d~ispensary.
An Italian ~shoemaker's son attending
one Of the West Side downtown schools
to which | was assigned was sent home
several times to make himself more clean
OF person. He invariably returned 70
school in a condition worse II anything
thar that which had caused him to De
sent away.
Finally the nurse determined to make
n house visit as calls at the homes are
tsvwad She went first to the father1e
shop. which proved 10 be in a dark and
filthy basement. The man. low browed
and i~psolent of manner. said angrliy
when the nurse told him her errand: ,
You maka da clothes. l keepa him
You senda ma bSy home as'in I mako
da stilett' for you'll. .
OF course the man was trying to
brighten the nurse, and she was greatly
alarmed; but retreat was out OF the
question. She argued and insisted. with
the result that the man changed COM
uletely, vowed the boy should keep clean.
and calling him told him to begin his
course by shining the nurses shoes. -.
It is the inspectors duty to treat III.
pees. It is the nurses to discover 1t II II
exists and to soc that the necessity for
cleanliness and sanitary living Is made
known in every home where the condi.
ton OF the children attending school
indicates such a lack. The Closest watch
is kept upon the children. .
When they visit the dispensaries they
receive a card with the date. Of their
visit stamped thereon This they must
show to the nurse as proof that they nave
obeyed instructions, Seldom has theplan
failed. The only notable exception thai
came to my notice was the case OF q boy
achieved marked popularity BY stamping
the dispensary cards Of the children to
whom the visit was, in their estimation,
a useless hardship,
Before the day OF the school nurse thou
sands Of children had to be excluded from
the schools because Of disease. The
statement that in a single month 10000
children were thus excluded, and because
Of diseases contracted through lack OF
cleanliness, was what stirred Miss Lillian
ID. Valid TO action in the matter. At
present the number OF children 70 ex.
cIuded is trifing. Philadelphia has fol.
lowed New York's example, beginning the
work with a nurse who got her school
training in New York.