Dover-Foxcroft 1928 - University of Maine

TOWN OF DOVER-FOXCROFT 13
Report of Public Health Nurse
To the Selectmen and Citizens of Dover-Foxcroft:
I. hereby submit my report as Public Health Nurse
forthe period from January 1, 1928 to January 1, 1929.
The nursing service has been carried on for the past
year by Mrs. Helen Hutchins, R. N., and myself. Mrs.
Hutchins resigned in October, her resignation taking
effect November 1st at which time I took over the work
of the association in the county.
It is practically impossible to measure the value of a
health service in dollars and cents ov by cold statistics,
but the resume which follows will give the citizens of
Dover-Foxcroft soma idea of what their health nurse
does.
Observation also has shown us that where there is a
health program in the schools and in the community
with regular inspection of pupils, there is less chance
for epidemics to start with consequent loss of school
money each year.
This service is supported by the sale of Christmas
seals which practically amounts to about enough to run
the work for six weeks. The rest of the budget is met
by a town appropriation and such gifts as interested
people make plus a small sum which comes in where the
nurse is paid as she makes a call on a sick patient.
During the past year many visits have been made to
homes. These visits are of a varying nature. Perhaps
to give care to a sick adult or baby, or a
mother with a new baby, incases of pneumonia, flu
or tuberculosis. It may be an effort to secure cooperation
in having physical defects corrected, to give advice
about the care of a sick child or to arrange hospitalization
or sanatarium care. Very often the visits involve
a social problem in the family and while the nurse is
not a social worker per se, she often acts as a liason
officer between the family and social agencies or other
resources. It is impossible to disassociate social service
from the work of a public health nurse. She not only
works with individuals but she also deals in families
and their problems.