Ideology and Experience: Public health nursing and the Ontario Rural Child Welfare Project, 1920–25

Abstract

Abstract. In October 1920, the provincial Board of Health of Ontario sent 16 public health nurses to the northern and rural parts of the province to "educate" mothers in an attempt to lower the unacceptably high infant mortality rate. This research examines the relationship between the official perceptions and actions of the Board in relation to the child welfare project and the actual experiences of the nurses in two small communities, Kenora and Bowmanville. It will be argued that knowledge is a necessary but not sufficient means to better health. The Board's focus on "health education," however delivered by the nurses, would not erase the effects of poverty, nor replace the lack of expert care for confinements or serious illness. Health education was a facile solution to the serious problem of the lack of permanent human and material resources, particularly in Northern and Eastern Ontario. Specific research at the local level is necessarqi to establish public health measures as effective agents of social change. R&um6. En octobre 1920, le <<Board of Health of Ontario* a envoy4 seize infirmikres-hygiCnistes dans les regions du nord rural de la province, pour cceduquer, les mkres et tenter de reduire le taux inacceptablement eleve de mortalit6 infantile. Cette recherche etudie le relation entre, d'un c6t4 les perceptions et interventions officielles du <<Board>> et, de l'autre, le projet de bien-Ctre de I'enfant et les experiences vecues par les infirmi6res dans les petites collectivit6s visitkes. On se propose de montrer que les connaissances sont un moyen necessaire mais non suffisant dans la recherche de I'amelioration de la sante. La pr66minence accordke par le *Board, B Yeducation sanitaire, bien qu'elle ait et6 actualisee de manikre creative par les infirmi&res, n'a pas suffi, cependant, pour combattre les effets de la hauvretk ou pour B l'insuffisance de soins comvetents dans les cas d'accouchement et de maladie grave. L'education sanitair; s'est av6r6e n16tre qu'une solution superficielle au problkme grave du manque endemique de ressources humaines et materielles,

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From the Grey Nuns to the Streets: A Critical History of Outreach Nursing in Canada

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