New nurses fit health role

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 2, Issue 9, 31 July 1984, Page 8

New nurses fit health role

Two new public health | nurses have recently taken up positions in the Waimarino: Mrs Leigh Berry replaces Glenis Francis in the Ohakune/ Raetihi district, and Mrs Bev Gwyn takes over in Waiouru. Mrs Berry then Leigh Bishop spent her seventh form year at Ruapehu College before moving to Palmerston North to do her nursing training. She married a Raetihi farmer in February and moved back into the district. Mrs Gwyn leaves Taihape to come to Waiouru, where she is based at the community health clinic. The nurses see their role as one of preventing illness by promoting good health within the community. Public health nursing is a very broad field. Nurses offer maternal, infant and pre-school health guidance, and regularly visit kindergartens and child care centres. In schools, both primary and secondary, nurses conduct immunisation programmes, test hearing and vision, and help select children for health camps.

They fully assess the health of all five-year olds at school entry. Nurses liaise with teachers and parents, and follow up with home visits to help the increasing number of children with social and emotional problems. In occupational health nurses monitor special 'at risk' situations. Public

health nurses educate workers in areas of preventative care such as hearing protection. Public health nursing is moving more into social work, dealing with the more 'at risk' groups and those with less 'coping ability'. Families with housing problems, low incomes and people who are unemployed receive more attention. The nurses are responsible for the health care of the elderly, for the support of those with psychiatric illness, and the physically and mentally handicapped. They run immunisation clinics for all manner of communicable diseases, and arrange the follow-up care and supervision of those with infectious diseases. "Prevention, health education and health promotion activities are the key components of the nurse's work, with emphasis on selfhelp and the acceptance of personal responsibility in health care,"says the nurses' Wanganui supervisor.