[Illustration: Card, four by six inches, used for summarizing the weekly and monthly reports] =Examination of Charts.= One of the duties of the superintendent is to examine the patients’ charts from time to time, to see how well the nurses do the clerical work, which is quite as important as the visiting itself. By carefully examining the charts, the superintendent is able to call the nurse’s attention to any lapses in them—incomplete histories, long intervals between visits, and so forth. If, for any reason, the nurse allows considerable time to elapse between her visits to a patient, the reasons for this should be fully noted on his chart. For example: some one wants to know when Mrs. Jones was last visited. On looking at the chart, we find the last visit was made on June first—and it is now August first. A two-months’ gap between visits looks like careless and inattentive work. The nurse, being questioned, however, is able to give a satisfactory explanation—Mrs. Jones had gone to pick berries, leaving the city the first of June, and not due to return till the first of September. This important fact, however, should have been noted on the chart, since it is almost as careless not to have made this entry, as it would have been to neglect the patient for so long a time. If a chart is to have any value, it should tell its own story, briefly and clearly. These charts, therefore, should be examined every two or three weeks. It is the duty of the superintendent to go over these records, just as it is her duty to make rounds from time to time among the patients, and visit them in their homes. This is done by the superintendent, not in a spirit of distrust or suspicion, but because she is the person responsible for the work, and it is her duty to oversee it, and bring it to its highest degree of efficiency. CHAPTER VI Finding Patients and Building up the Visiting List—Increasing the Visiting List—Social Workers—Dispensaries—Patients’ Family and Friends—Nurses’ Cases—Physicians. =Finding Patients and Building up the Visiting List.= The first thing for a nurse to do when she begins her work in a new community is to find the patients she is to instruct and care for. And the question naturally arises; how are these patients to be discovered?