Health Work in the Public Schools

ch makes medical inspection effective. The school physician's discovery of defects and diseases is of little use if the result is only the entering of the fact on the record card or the exclusion of the child from school. The notice sent to parents telling of the child's condition and advising that the family physician be consulted, represents wasted effort if the parents fail to realize the import of the notification or if there be no family physician to consult. If the physical examination has for its only result the entering of words upon record cards, then pediculosis and tuberculosis are of precisely equal importance. The nurse avoids such ineffective lost motions by converting them into efficient functioning through assisting the physician in his examinations, personally following up the cases to insure remedial action, and educating teachers, children, and parents in practical applied hygiene.

Some idea of the work of the school nurses in Cleveland may be gained from the following record of what