Male District Nurse Kept Busy

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31235, 6 December 1966, Page 20

Male District Nurse Kept Busy

Being a district nurse is far from being the preserve of women Mr A. Anthony, of England’s Borough of Bedford public health service, is emphatic about that. “I have been 19 years a district nurse, and I find it a most satisfying and worthwhile occupation,” he said last nigh t Mr Anthony is on a sixmonth visit to New Zealand to survey health services in relation to nursing. He is the holder of a Churchill Fellowship, and has been in this country five weeks. Three male nurses and 10 females were employed by the local authority in Bedford, which had a population of 80,000, he said. One district nurse could see as many as 30 patients a day. “We see many patients in their homes, and those who

require intensive care are seen perhaps several times,” he said. There were definite advantages in caring for patients at home. The average cost of hospital care was £45 a patient a week. The average cost of home care, with full supporting services, was £l5 a week. In addition, surgical cases discharged from hospital, and certain medical cases, recovered much more quickly when nursed at home. Patients did not have the same anxiety about what was going on at home as when in hospital.

Some of the more advanced psychopaedic cases had been taken from hospitals in England and cared for at home with the help of the psychiatric social worker, the health visitor and the mental welfare officer. Special educational facilities were available for some of these children.

Asked what health problems were most prevalent in England, Mr Anthony said there was not the same Incidence of pneumonia or tuberculosis as previously, but there was a high rate of heart and blood conditions, and cancer. “We, like New Zealand, find that many people suffer from stress conditions,” he said. “This can be caused by a number of factors—-includ-ing isolation from parents and too much reliance on the services given in a welfare state.” For instance, it was not necessarily the recipient of national assistance who suffered; bis wife and family could undergo emotional stress because of his loss of employment and insecurity. Stress was also caused by the financial situation in young families. A woman might have been used to earning a high income, but when she married she found it bard

to adjust to her busband's earnings, which htd to cover the family. “Our problems in this field are similar, and I don’t think we really know the answer," Mr Anthony added. “We are just making wild guesses as yet.”

In Bedford, Mr Anthony sees many Pakistani and other immigrants who often crowd into older buildings. Sometimes the health inspector is notified if there is overcrowding, or if a landlord is not keeping a building in a fit state of repair. It was often difficult to find out just how many people were, in fact, occunving a tenement building, workers on shifts occupied beds round the block, and the only time all residents could be found at home was during weekends.

The life of a district nurse was far from dull, said Mr Anthony.