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Show NURSES "MINISTERING ANGELS" SALT LAKE STSTEnCOPIED THE women employees of the board of health. Left ; lo right Miss Marian Groesbeck, Miss Alma Karlsson, Miss Carrie Roberts, Miss Ellen Lees and Miss Rose Korous. Stand-ing Stand-ing in front, Miss Diana Gustaveson Health Department Renders Help to Parents in Caring for Children. A YOUNG woman, plainly and neatly neat-ly dressed and carrying a very ordinary little black grip, boarded a street ear in ono of the city's suburbs. There was really nothing iu her appearance or actions to attract general attention, noverth-loss noverth-loss slio was tho subject of comment by some ox the passongcrs. Two women bedecked in dame fashion's fash-ion's latest creations sat on tho opposite op-posite side of tho car and gave the nowconier a thorough inspection. At first their faces reflected only curiosity, curi-osity, but the lifting of chins and noses soou indicated another feeling. "Rome canvasser,'' whispered one. "Sure," nodded number two knowingly. know-ingly. "But it seems to me that even canvassers can niako themselves presentable. pre-sentable. " . . Three little tots on the rear seat also displavcd curiosity. The little follow on the end nudged his nearest companion with the questions, "See that badge? Wonder what that is?" Salt Lake Foremost. After a careful scrutiny tho recipient recipi-ent of tho nudge 'assumed a wise air and replied, "She's one o' them women cops, I. betchu. At this tho third little one chirruped, "Ah gwnnt You kids make mc tirod! That's" one o' them school nurses." District nurses are uot innovations in Salt Lake alone; in' fact it is one of thu few cities in the country where thoy arc known at all. And they have come to stay if the advice of city health commissioner, Dr. Samuel G. Paul, is taken. Salt Lako was one of the first cities iu tho United States lo employ district nurses. The results havo been so satisfactory in this method of looking look-ing after the health of the school children child-ren and the general health of the coin-munity coin-munity that it is now receiving serious consideration in many of the largor cities of the nation. Only recently Kewnrk, N. J., adopted tho plan and substituted eight district nurses for eight physicians in the omploy of the city. Many Uninformed. To the .school cliildreu of the citv, and many of the parents, tho duties of the district nurses are familiar, but there are others, like those on the street enr, who are yet ignorant in tnat respect. Salt Luke now employs live nurses. Four of them arc assigned to different parts of the city and the fifth remains in the office of the city health commissioner. The outside workers visit all tlie schools in their respective districts at regular intervals and inspect all of the children lor symptoms of disease. In cases of defective eyesight, defective hearing, thront. trouble and other chronic ailments, the parents are uoti-fied uoti-fied and remedies suggested. If afflictions af-flictions due to insanitnrv conditions are discovered the homes 'of tho children chil-dren are visited and advice given as to tne best way to overcome the trouble In such cases, as in the case of suspected sus-pected contagious diseases, the children chil-dren are not permitted to return to school until the trouble has been re-moved. re-moved. The nurses can not always diatr-nose diatr-nose case accurately, but earh time that a contagious disease is suspected i tho child is fent home and the board of health immediately notified. Upon re-epipt re-epipt of such notice one of the phvsi-cians phvsi-cians employed bv the city immediate-lv immediate-lv looks into the matter and issues or denies the permit to return to ccbonl It the suspicions of the nurses arc con tinned, the home is quarantined But fhcKo incsH-ngors of health do not rest durum the school vacations Thev go over their aligned districts recularly during the hot weather 'uid civc special attention to infants The- mothers arc given instructions in regard re-gard to proper 'care of children nnd in many instances of illness the nursos taKe charge Thev also look after tho milk stations established by tho city tor tho purpose of furm'shiug pure milk for the little tots during tho suiu-mor suiu-mor mouths. Tho nurse in the office has no siuc-eure. siuc-eure. Slio must have had a wide experience ex-perience in tho treatmont of practical-ly practical-ly all diseases and must bo capablo of diagnosing cases as accurately us a plrysioian. for with her rests the responsibility re-sponsibility of issuing the majoritty of tho cards permittiug children to return re-turn to school. She must bo prepared at all times to offer advico to the nurses on the outside if necessary and ready to meet any cmoreencv. Duriucr her spare moments sho assists with the numerous office reports. Reports by Telephone. Another new featuro of tho city health department is the installation of a clerk whose special duty is to take birth reports over the tolcphone from physicians. It every state there . is a law to the effect that attending; physicians shall make reports of births to the health department within a certain cer-tain time. It is not the intention of physicians to iguore the law, but complications com-plications often arise and the report is overlooked indefiuitoly. Dr Paul realized this and wishing to help rather than persecute the members of bis profession pro-fession he arranged for a clerk to take tho reports by telephone, thus relicv-iner relicv-iner the attending phvsician of going to his office, .ding out and mailing the regular form. lust what tho district nurses have accomplished is difficult to estimate, liofore thoy were appointed it is. believed be-lieved that many contagious diseases in mild form were never reported to the health department, which, of course, would cause a considerable discrepancy dis-crepancy in the statistics of that department. de-partment. Now every case is promptly reported nnd. regardless of tho fact, comparative figures show that disease Clt' 'ls 0,1 tnR decrease. Iho nurses assigned to districts in jthe city aro Miss Marian Groesbeck, -Miss Alum Kurlsson, Miss Carrv Roberts Rob-erts and Miss Rose Korous. Miss El-leu El-leu Lees is in charge of the office and Miss Diana Gustaveson lakes care of l. t in telephone roports and assists in I the compilation of the regular reports of the department. i |
