The role of paediatric nurse in home visiting of newborns and infants in the past – literary survey

Abstract

This article deals with the problems of home visiting service for newborns, infants and mothers in the territory of Czechoslovakia during the period from 1949 to 1989. At that time the complex child care requirements was carried out through the district system. In-depth analysis of documents and articles from professional journals were used as the method of obtaining and processing the data. The articles were researched up via a research service in the National Medical Library in Prague. Criteria for the selection included the period 1949–1989 and the key words used were – nurse, newborn, infant, care and nursing. One hundred and thirty-four documents were found in total and after a thorough analysis 14 articles were included in the literary survey. The goal of this literary survey was to map out the care of newborns and infants in the territory of former Czechoslovakia from 1949 to 1989. The results of the survey showed that the care of newborns and infants was ensured via the district system which included home visiting in families, counselling for infants and toddlers and the district medical care. It is also obvious that the introduction of district health care in the past was a comprehensive solution to the problems of health care of the children. This data provides a rational basis for the idea that community care of an infant plays an important role in the health care system also in the present when we miss home visiting service of a paediatric nurse of newborns and infants which is absolutely common practice in developed European countries.