Nurses' Papers on Tuberculosis :: read before the Nurses' Study Circle of the Dispensary Department, Chicago Municipal Tuberculosis Sanitarium — John Shaqi
Nurses' Papers on Tuberculosis :: read before the Nurses' Study Circle of the Dispensary Department, Chicago Municipal Tuberculosis SanitariumChicago (Ill.). Municipal Tuberculosis Sanitarium. Dispensary Department
Science
Nurses' Papers on Tuberculosis :: read before the Nurses' Study Circle of the Dispensary Department, Chicago Municipal Tuberculosis Sanitarium
Chicago (Ill.). Municipal Tuberculosis Sanitarium. Dispensary Department
Tuberculosis
In every community where the tuberculosis problem has been seriously taken
in hand the importance of the presence of the infection in children had to
be considered and this has been carefully studied by those who realize
that tuberculosis, far from being a disease chiefly of adult life, is
intimately associated with childhood. Therefore, is it not most important
that all children, who have either been exposed to tuberculosis through
the presence of an active case in their home, or show a family
predisposition to the disease, should be given special consideration, and
every opportunity furnished to make it possible for them to withstand the
latent infection or to overcome the inherited lack of resistance? The best
means of meeting this important problem, as far as school children are
concerned, is through the medium of Open Air Schools, not only because of
the benefit to the individual case, but also because of the very important
educational influence on the community at large.
The first Open Air School was opened in Charlottenburg, Germany, a suburb
of Berlin, in the year 1904, a school of a new type, to which the Germans
gave the name Open Air Recovery School. The object was to create a school
where children could be taught and cured at the same time, and this same
purpose has obtained in all other schools of similar type which have since
been opened. This new educational venture was designed for backward and
physically debilitated pupils who could not keep up with the work in the
regular schools and who were not so mentally deficient that they were fit
subjects for the classes of mentally subnormal children. It was felt that
if these children were sent to sanatoria they would undoubtedly improve
physically, but would fall back in the class work; while, on the other
hand, if they remained in the regular school they would deteriorate
physically. It was to meet these needs, then, that this new type of
school was devised. As the name implies, the school was held almost
entirely in the open air, the regime consisting of outdoor life, plenty of
good food, strict hygiene, suitable clothing, and school work so modified
as to suit the conditions of the children.
During its first year the Charlottenburg School was open for only three
months, but upon publication of the first report of the results
accomplished it was decided to keep the school open a longer period. The
desire to open other schools of similar type spread rapidly throughout
Germany, as well as the rest of Europe and other parts of the world.
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