The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1926-06-03
The Public Health Nurse in the
State of Maryland.

There are forty-fve nurses engaged
in public health work in the counties
of Maryland-just five times as many
as were on the lists in 1920 when
public health nursing was first linked
up with the work Of the State De-
partment of Health. In 1920, nine
counties had some form of nursing
service; now, each of the twenty
three counties is supplied with at
least one nurse, and several of the
counties have two or three or more.
In each section, the activities of the
nurses form a part of the public
health program and are under the d.
rection of the deputy State health Of
fcer or the local health officer, with
advisory nursing service from the
State Department of Health.
These facts were brought out by
Miss C. Ethel Monroe, advisory nurse
of the State Department of Health in
review of public health nursing in
Maryland at the annual conference of
State health officers and county and
local boards of health, under the aus
pieces of the State Department of
Health at the Johns Hopkins School
of Hygiene at Baltimore last week.
Encouraging as the development
of public health nursing has been,"
Miss Monroe said, eff we are to keep
pace with the opportunities, and with
the needs for nursing service in each
county, we should have at least one
hundred nurses, not simply forty
five. Throughout the country, where
special thought has been given to this
subject, it is felt that there should
be at least one nurse to each 1900 of
the population-not an extravagant
estimate surely, for everybody will
agree that any nurse who can give
public health nursing service to a
parish of that size would have no
time for loafng.
"On the basis of that estimate,
since the total population of the coun-
ties of Maryland is approximately
100000, we ought to have ninety-nine
field nurses and that number and
more are what we hope to have even
tually."
The work of the public health
nurses is financed partly from State,
county and local appropriations, and
partly from funds raised by voluntary
organizations, county public health
associations, local chapters of the
American Red Cross and by the sale
of the Christmas Seals by the State
tuberculosis Association. State or
county funds finance the work of thir-
ty-four of the nurses, and voluntary
organizations that of eleven nurses.
Allegany county, with a population
of 74,2O1, has six nurses, the largest
number of any one county; Baltimore
county, with population of S5,639,
has five nurses; Washington, with a
population of 65,402; Frederick, with
53,467, and Anne Arundel county,
with 1881, each have three nurses.
Carroll, Hartford, Howard, Montgom-
cry, Prince George, Talbot and Wi
comico each have two nurses. Each
of the rest of the counties has one
nurse.
Other phases of public health nurs-
ing were discussed as follows: "a
County Child Hygiene Program" by
Miss Louise MacConney, of Hartford
county; Supervising Nurses in the
Baltimore City Health Department"
by Miss Jane Newman, of Baltimore
City; "The Advantage of Postgrad-
uate Course" by Miss Hermine Ba-
denhoop, of Montgomery county;
Preparing Nurse for Rural
Work." by Miss Margaret c. Wohlge-
muth, of Anne Arundel county, and
voluntary Funds for Public Health
Work." by Miss Margaret E. New
man, of Frederick county.
Rev and Mrs Henry A Grllhbs re-