Perth Amboy evening news. [volume] (Perth Amboy, N.J.) 1903-1959, 1915-06-09
MAY HAVE ANOTHER
VISITING NURSE
Report of Miss narmsen Re-
ceived by Health Board at
Meeting Held Last Night.
HAS BEEN VISITING MANY
Gives Lectures in Schools;
Views Insanitary Tenements
Praised for Her Work.

Such great work has been accom-
plished through the medium of the
public health nurse, Miss Amelia
Harmsen, that Health Officer Will
sey, encouraged by the results OBJ
tanned, last night recommended to
the Board of Health at Its regular
meeting, that another nurse be en-
ployed to assist in this work. While
the report of vital statistics for the
past five months has been exceeding
ly satisfactory, the health officer, in
his report to the board, stated that
he believed seven deaths were due
to preventable causes, some of
which might have been prevented
and others delayed by frequent visits
of trained nurse, who would advise
them to secure prompt medical at
tention and show them how to care
for the patient.
The report of the nurse shows
that while this work Is dong much
to prevent Illness which would prob
ably result In death in many instan
ces, 1t also shows that there is
greater need for public health nurs-
ing than was known. The following
extracts from her report showing
the scope and results of her work
are of especial interest:
Report of Nurse.
During the past month I have
visited the homes Of eighty-one
newly born babies, fourteen of
which were i'll and 1t was necessary
to visit these homes frequently to
instruct the mothers In the prepara-
ton of infant food, as a large per
centage of the sick babies were arti-
ficially fed. OF these last named
fourteen babies, ten have recovered
my number of visits to once or twice
a month and the remaining four still
require two or three visits each
week. Seventeen out of the eighty
one homes mentioned were in very
insanitary condition and frequent
visits should be made at these homes
to teach and encourage these people
in sanitation and hygiene.
I'm addition to this I have made
147- visits in the poorer tenement
houses, twenty-six of which were al
so very insanitary. In these homes
I found fifty-six babies under the
age of one year, six with infected
eyes, six cases of measles, five cases
of eczema, two cases of tuberculosis,
twenty babies whose birth had not
been reported.
81 believe the lectures at the
schools will aid US in our work, as
the girls were attentive and the
teachers have been Of great assist
ance
During the month I have given
twelve lectures at the grammar
school, two at the high school and
made three visits at the day nursery,
a total of 276 visits for the month.
This report shows great activity
along this line of work and has com
bined with the other branches of
health work in making the past
month a banner period in the history
of the health department.
In his report to the board. Mr..
Willsey said in part:
"On going over the records of
deaths with the registrar of vital
statistics, we find that during the
first five months of this year there
were 28 less deaths than during the
corresponding months of 1914. de-
crease in the death rate OF IL per
L,
that while there was an increase In
the number of deaths during the last
month over the number of deaths in
April, seven were caused by acci-
dents and three of this number were
non-residents and cannot be justly
charged against this city.
Another source of satisfaction is
the number of communicable dis
eases reported. You will note in the
following table that there were
thfrty-four less cases reported dur
ing the month than for the CORE
spending month of 1914, and twen-
ty-one less cases than were reported
during April" During the month
there were twelve cases OF diph-
iberia, three cases of scarlet fever,
thirty-five cases of measles, six
cases of tuberculosis and four cases
OF chicken pox, total of sixty as
compared with ninety-four for the
corresponding month of the preced-
ing year.
During the month 243 food in
spections were made as follows: Abb
batoir, 81; public market, Q; meat
markets, 10: groceries, So; milk de-
pots, 16; fish markets, 2; bakeries, !
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