Primary Care Public Health Nursing Service

The School of Public Health Nursing

Historical Mission Completed!

By

 Anne Marie WONG

Senior Nursing Officer, Public Health Nursing Division

Introduction

The successful transition of the in-service training of public health nurses in the Department of Health to baccalaureate degree level at the University of Hong Kong in 2002 has represented a milestone in the history of public health nursing education.  It denotes the advancement of the public health nursing practice towards professionalization in line with the world trend of development in nursing practice.  Hence, the School of Public Health Nursing (the School) has completed its historical mission in preparing public health nurses (PHN) for delivering quality care to the public for the past 50 years.

To commemorate this unique nursing education institute in Hong Kong as well as its significant contribution to developing many remarkable public health nurses, a brief history of its growth, development and completion is drawn up here to share with interested viewers.

Historical development of the School of Public Health Nursing

Community Background

In 1841, Hong Kong was a scarcely populated place with around 3,650 local residents and 2,000 fishermen.  Public health was mainly directed to the control of plague and cholera and the betterment of environmental hygiene.  For the rest of the century till the end of the 1940s, there had been a steady increase in the population due to the incoming of refugees from China as a result of the Japanese invasion of China in 1938 and the Chinese Civil War in 1949^1,3.

During the immediate post-war period in the 1950s, the great influx of new immigrants and refugees to the territory had caused a severe shortage of housing, leading to the massive growth of unplanned squatter areas.   Over-crowdedness, poor sanitation and malnutrition arising from poverty had brought about a flood of all kinds of highly infectious and potentially lethal diseases such as cholera, typhoid and tuberculosis.  Hospital services were overloaded. Infant mortality rate (IMR) was very high.  The IMR in 1951 was 91.8 per 1,000 life births^1,3. (Now our IMR ranks among the best in the world. According to the Annual Report of the Department of Health 2002/2003, it was 2.4 per 1,000 live births.⁵)

The poor health situation of the population catalyzed the new development of public health services that focused on the prevention and control of diseases as well as on promoting maternal and child health.  These embraced epidemiological surveillance, disease quarantine, anti-tuberculosis services, anti-venereal disease services, maternal and child health service, health education as well as extensive immunization programmes for smallpox, diphtheria, cholera and typhoid initiated by the World Health Organization (WHO).  The infant welfare service established in the 1930s was expanded and reorganized as the Maternal and Child Health Service^1,2,3.

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