Health services in the schools of Manitoba

Abstract

Health services may be viewed from the standpoint of training in the theory of health and also from the standpoint of improving the health of children through bettering physical conditions in and about the school premises. Training in the theory of health involves instruction as well as practice in the observation of health rules. In this thesis the writer undertakes to investigate and report on Manitoba school health services as they are revealed (1) through a study of existing physical conditions on school premises, and (2) through a study of the provisions made for health instruction and for health practices in the school. Data were secured from statutes and regulations governing the provision for and administration of health services in schools. Valuable documentary evidence was obtained through a study of the annual reports of departments of health, and of departments of education; from the reports of public school inspectors and public health nurse on the physical conditions in the schools; from clinic records, health programmes, health forms, copies of radio addresses, and newspaper articles. Personal interviews were held with those in charge of the work in the Provincial and city health departments. Letters addressed to health and education departments enabled the writer to secure from every province of the Dominion the most reliable information available. This material was analyzed, and what appeared to be worth while evidence is organized under the various topics treated in the subsequent chapters of this report. Data secured by the method of analysis of reports and by interviews do not always provide a complete and accurate picture of the operation of a plan of instruction in that it is difficult to eliminate the tendency to overstate results. Only by means of observation and the critical examination of the effects of such a plan may this difficulty be overcome. The writer has little means to securing data by these methods, hence was compelled to rely upon statistics and published articles and reports. All such matter available was carefully examined and so forms the basis for the findings herein reported.