Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1920-01-23
WHY COUNTY NURSE
IS A COUNTY NECESSITY
From the Crusader


wisconsin is largely rural state
Its health problems concern essentially
q farming small town population. Ev-
cry country school child needs and has
the right TO the same advantages in
health instruction, medical inspection
and visiting nurse supervision and n.y.
gienic school surroundings as has his
brother in the city schools. Until this
right is given him, Wisconsin is
neglecting its duty to the majority of
its residents and to the state at large.
The county nurse in Wisconsin is
tle logical consequence of a recognition
Of these facts even before the great
world war called attention to the value
of health and cOstlinesS of neglecting
minor physical defects during child
hood.
But the facts We're recognized by the
few and not by the many in the days
before the United States entered the
war Then came the draft and it's
startling revelations when medical eX-
aminations proved One-third of the
y
age to he physically unfit for military
service. This physical unfitness was.
in the large ma! Ority of cases, due to
minor defects which might have been
corrected easily had they been discOv-
cred in childhood. People Of h e
United States were amazed to learn
that so many of their young men were
handicapped by disease, and they were
even more astOnished to learn that over
half Of the disqualified men came from
rural districts.
And Immediately they saw in this
record the need Of medical inspection
and health supervision in the country
| schools.
Wisconsin cities are as a rule alive
TO the value of medical inspection of
schools and public health nursing ser
vice But over 60 per cent of the pop
| ulation of Wisconsin lives in small
| towns or in the country. There is
| only one city in the state Of over 10000
| inhabitants and only 20 cities OF oven
| 10000 Even though there were the
! best of health supervision i'll these
cities the needs of nearly two-thirds
Of the people of Wisconsin would not
he touched.
The county is the logical unit fol-
| extending health work and health ser
| vice into the rural districts. The pub
| lie health nurse is the logical agency
| for doing the work. IN the few Wis
| cOnsin counties where the work has
been started. she has proved equally as
! efficient and valuable in reaching the
remote farm house and the little cOun
| try school as have her sister nurses il
| their work of minstering to city needs
1t is uniformly true that in spite OF
| the fact that the farmer is surrounded
| by the requisites of health. he needs
| his attention called to them and the
| proper use of them fully as much as
| does the city dweller. He needs t(
| have his eyes opened to disease dangers
also The well on his farm may be the
source of typhoid as deadly as any
polluted water supply in the city. The
careless conSumptive spreads disease
! Just as surely in country home as he
does in a city tenement.
| The farmers children may go tC
school in a building whose msanitary
| conditions would receive his immedi
| ate attention if he knew about them
| They may be having their present anC
| future efficiency impaired by mi1lOl
| physical defects which he would be
| glad to have rectified if he knew Of theia
| existence. He has right to know ali
| these things.
| His wife has the same need and the
same right as the city mother has &c
| the best Information which modefi
medical science can give her concern
| ing the care which she should receive
| both before the baby's birth and at the
| time of its coming and which she
should give the baby after birth. She
should have the benefit Of the best adj
vice Obtainable as to. the proper feed
! ing. clothing and care of the baby and
| of her older children as we'll. and when
she sends them to school she is entitled
to know that the community which de-