Skip to main content

1949: Cost of public health nurse 40 cents per person

Subhead
Bits By Betty
Lead Summary
By
Betty Mann, president, Rock County Historical Society

The following appeared in The Rock County Star-Herald on April 7, 1949.
 
County Public Health Nurse Would Cost Residents Estimated 40 Cents Per Person
 
Maximum Annual Outlay For Program Would Be $5,000, According to Report
Cost of maintaining a public health nurse in Rock county will average 40 cents per person per year, it was announced here Friday night.
A meeting, arranged for by the Luverne Mothers Club, to discuss the question of a public health nurse, was held at the high school building here. In attendance were three members of the county board, representatives of various civic organizations, several school teachers, and a group of nurses and public health workers from Nobles county.
Speaker of the evening was Dr. B. O. Mork, Jr., Worthington, director of the state department of health. County Supt. of Schools Barrett presented the figures on the cost in the absence of County Auditor Koehn, whose records were used as a basis for the computation.
Cost of having the nursing program, based on costs in other counties in the state, was estimated to amount to between $4,800 and $5,000; the state will pay $1,500; the remaining $3,500 being the county’s share of the cost. Figuring on the basis of $10,000,000 in assessed valuation of Rock county property, the nursing program would increase the total tax bill for each taxpayer by .35 of a mill. For the average quarter section of land with an average set of buildings, taxes would increase $1.75 over the present amount now paid, Mr. Barrett indicated.
(The county board of commissioners hires the nurse if a public health program is adopted. Costs incidental in the nursing program are paid from tax funds.)
Benefits which the people of the county would derive through a public nursing program would more than offset the offset the cost, Dr. Mork pointed out.
“The cost of a couple of movies or a couple of haircuts shouldn’t be too great for the people to pay for this health service,” he stated.
Among the benefits derived through a county nursing home program, Dr. Mork pointed out are:
(1) Tuberculosis testing (mantoux) on a county wide basis. Dr. S. A. Slater, of the Worthington Sanatorium, hesitates to make Mantoux tests on a mass basis when there is not a public health nurse in the county, because a nurse is needed for follow-up work, Dr. Mork stated.
(2) Work in cancer control, with funds made available by the American Cancer Society. The Cancer Society, it was pointed out, will work though a nurse in educating the public regarding cancer in its early stages. Death from cancer can be prevented, in at least one-third of the cases, if cancer is detected early enough.
(3) Earlier detection of such diseases as tuberculosis. Each case of tuberculosis that requires sanatorium treatment costs the county at least $2,000 per year for case. For every death caused by TB, in its early stages, Dr. Mork pointed out, the saving to the county resulting from such a discovery, would almost pay the nurse’s salary for a year.
Duties of a nurse, Dr. Mork said, fall into three categories. She would provide nursing care and health guidance to school children and families. In Nobles county, he said, the nurse calls on all mothers of newborn babies to give them assistance and advice. Secondly, she participates in educational work, assisting in training home nursing classes, etc. Thirdly, she cooperates with the medical profession and citizen groups in putting the county health program into effect. This may include TB testing, mass immunization, health examinations of school children, etc.
In breaking down the cost figures, Dr. Mork said that the nurse’s salary would run from $2,800 to $3,000 per year, based on what other counties are now paying. A part time clerk would entail an expenditure of an additional $1,000; $700 would go toward travel expense, while another $300 would be required for office supplies and incidentals.
Mrs. Jerry Simpson, a member of the Mothers Club Public health nurse committee, said she had investigated costs of counties of approximately the same size population and area as Rock county, to maintain a nursing program. Cost in Stevens county last year was $3,575; Sherburne, $4,067.57; Houston, $3,832.61; Dodge, $4,281.51; Pipestone, .4,013.72.
Rock is one of 21 counties in the state which does not have a nursing program, yet there is not a county in the state which has a greater agricultural valuation than Rock county, Mrs. Simpson pointed out.
Dr. C. L. Sherman said that the medical profession as a whole was in favor of the nursing program, and Dr. O. W. Anderson said that everyone he had talked to felt the same way.
County Commissioner G. V. Carstens, Luverne, when asked how the county board felt about it, said that if anyone were interested in how that county board felt about it, they were welcome to attend the county board meeting, and the county board would express their views at that time. He said that since the county board tabled the matter last year, two new members had replaced two of those who had been on the board at that time, and the board’s views may have changed since then.
County Commissioner W. G. Perkins said no one in his district had spoken to him in favor of a nurse, and he had had some speak against it. “If I thought the people of my district favored a nurse,” he said, “I’d vote for it. But, it’s my duty to represent the people of my district and vote as they want me to vote.”
County Commissioner Harry Leslie did not voice his opinion. Commissioner A. H. Halls and L. J. Moeller were not in attendance.
         Donations to the Rock County Historical Society can be sent to the Rock County Historical Society, 312 E. Main Street, Luverne, MN 56156.
Mann welcomes correspondence sent to mannmade@iw.net.

You must log in to continue reading. Log in or subscribe today.