Nurses working in these services were pioneers of the public health nursing service. In 1952, a Health Visitor from the United Kingdom was posted to the Maternal and Child Health Service. She was later appointed as the Supervisor and Training Officer of Health Nurses. Group health education activities in the form of puppet shows and plays were started in the Maternal and Child Health Centres (MCHCs). Immunization programmes were implemented and post-natal clinic sessions were organized in the MCHCs. Nurses paid home-visits to households with new born infants to give childcare education to postnatal mothers as well as to trace defaulters of immunization programmes1,2.
Birth of the School
The School of Public Health Nursing came into existence in 1954, initially as a centre for the training of health visitors at the Harcourt Health Centre. Thus, formal training of public health nurses commenced as the training of health visitors. The Supervisor and Training Officer of Health Nurses and Medical Officers were responsible for the training. The first batch of students recruited comprised 9 Registered Nurses with midwifery qualifications. They were to undertake a 'Health Visitor Certificate Course' with its ascribed examination under the auspices of the Royal Sanitary Institute of that time. The Royal Society of Health of the United Kingdom was the examining body. On passing the examination, they were qualified as Health Visitors, a rank equivalent to the present Nursing Officer rank. As for the following 15 years, the annual intake of students remained at around 102,3. In 1969, the School moved from the Harcourt Health Centre to the Tang Shiu Kin Hospital. The training capacity was increased to 15 students per year.
Subsequent development
In 1978, the School moved to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and formally became a post-basic training unit for developing public health nurses. During that year, the curriculum was revised to a 12-month 'Post-registration Health Nursing Certificate Course' which focused on enhancing the knowledge and skills of nurses in providing health education and delivering quality primary health care to the community. The training capacity was further increased to 25 students per year. For the period 1979 to 1988, a total of 8 classes were run.
Upon the reorganization of the Medical and Health Department into the Department of Health and the Hospital Services Department on 1 April 1989, the School of Public Health Nursing came under the Public Health Nursing Division in the Department of Health. In 1990, the School was temporarily relocated to the Nursing School at the Yan Chai Hospital while pending the completion of its own premises at the Lam Tin Polyclinic. By then, it had an annual student intake of 30. Moreover, the curriculum of the Health Nursing Course was reviewed on the advice of a consultant from the WHO. It was then revamped into a 9-month 'Diploma Course in Public Health Nursing' which was introduced in 1992. Through a combination of theoretical input and clinical practicum, the course aimed to develop competent public health nurses capable of shouldering a wide range of public health nursing responsibilities in delivering quality care to the public in partnership with other primary health care team members3.
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