THE PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE OF HEALTH VISITING

Abstract

This for health is written by three lecturers from the Health Visitor Course of the University of Surrey. (It was in this English university's precursor institution, Battersea College of Technology, that the first formal course of training for health visitors was established in 1907.) Initially, Rosemary Hale, late Principal Health Visitor Tutor, reviews the history, functions, and anticipated future of health visitors. Each of the other authors also contributes three chapters. Marion Loveland discusses Record and Report Writing, Home Visiting, and Health Visitor in the Health Centres. Grace Owen describes Cooperation and Team Work, Work of the School Health Visitor, and Principles of Health Education. In 1862, the Manchester and Salford Reform Association employed 'a respectable working woman' to pay day-to-day visits among the poor, to teach and to help. This was the origin of health visiting. Today health visitor training extends over a calendar year, with high school graduation as the minimum educational requirement. Many nurses study to become health visitors. The profession is described as a state service of highly trained professional workers providing health education and social advice to all age groups and the family unit . . . in promotion and maintenance of physical, emotional and social health . . . for all social groups in the community. Although the book purports to meet the needs of student health visitors in respect to principles, methods and techniques of health visiting, the term handbook more nearly describes its style. Skills in health visiting practice in homes, health centers, and schools are discussed in an elementary, philosophic manner with statements of prescribed techniques. Less emphasis is placed on involvement of patient, family, and community in meeting health needs. This text serves as an easily read survey of health visitors and their functian in Great Britain. It is a useful reference for the international health worker in understanding the preparation and function of health visitors in Great Britain and for interpretation to international health personnel who may wish to study in that country. ROBAH KELLOGG