The school physician has many opportunities, through a well-planned consultant service, to give sound medical counsel to school administrators and teachers in order to help them carry on a maximum type of health-education program. Dr. Walworth Furness gives direction for-the enrichment of the school health program in Seventh, day Adventist schools.
We hold in our hands the health of the next generation. As parents, medical workers, and schoolteachers, it is up to us to take care of the health of our children and young people, both by supervision and by health education. Physical examination of young people of college, academic, and elementary ages reveals widespread neglect of both minor and major health problems. It is preventive medicine that is needed, and where can it be better practiced than in school health projects? As Seventh-day Adventists we should be leaders in such projects. I would suggest that there is great room for improvement.
Let us give thought first to the physical examination. Such examinations should be thorough. If necessary, give fewer examinations, but when they are given let them be thorough. Avoid the herding of many students into a few small rooms where noise and nervousness are distressing to both medical staff and students. The student should not feel that he is just one of many, but should feel that he is a separate entity in whom the examiner has taken personal interest. It would be well if the teacher of the elementary grades could be present when the members of his or her class are examined by the physician. In this way the teacher will be alert to the physical needs of the class, will learn to recognize health problems, and can therefore give health instruction that is intelligent and to the point.
As the trend is away from superficial defect-finding physical examinations and is toward more thorough examinations, it may not be possible to examine all children annually. Therefore the teacher must be educated to carry out a day-by-day health-observation program. She should be intelligent in health matters. Observation of the physical examination alone will not be sufficient stimulus. School administrators and medical personnel must together carry out a program of regular lectures, demonstrations, and round-table discussions to keep alive the interest of the teachers and to educate them. Upon the physician, nurse, and administrator falls the responsibility of planting the interest and laying the foundation. Upon the teacher falls much of the responsibility of passing on health knowledge and supervision not only to students but also to parents of students. Both medical and nonmedical members of the faculty need to mingle their thoughts in order that they may co-operate well together. School curriculum will be affected as all counsel together. Teachers will learn to report early the evidences of imperfect health.
As leaders in health education, let us not fall short on such simple health-ensurance measures as are required in public schools. School administrators need to encourage immunization against smallpox and diphtheria. We seldom stop to realize what vaccines and sanitation have together accomplished in staying the cruel epidemics that once killed more rapidly and subtly than modern warfare. School administrators must also be aware of several diseases which still stalk brazenly through the land laying hands on young subjects. Tuberculosis is one of these diseases. With children, the chief problem is guarding against contact with the tuberculous. Bearing this in mind, school faculties do well to have periodic chest X rays. High school and college students should all be tuberculin tested annually, or there should be widespread chest X-raying.
Classroom health problems will be mostly in the category of the "common cold," or of dietary deficiencies or indiscretions. The teacher can do much to educate students in prevention and correction. The simple laws of hygiene should be repeated again and again.
In our school health program let us not forget to solicit and warrant the co-operation of family physicians and dentists. The enthusiasm of a good health program will soon spread to these. It is in their hands to take an interest in follow-up work and to avoid unnecessary expense for the family.
Health education is the vital need. If we hear enough about health and talk it enough, we shall naturally gravitate toward the principles outlined. The first response will be interest, and when interest reaches fruition, there will be co-operation throughout the school.
Josephine W. Furness
