Mabel Spear grew up in North Amherst, attended Amherst schools, and graduated from the high school. Following her graduation from the House of Mercy (Bishop Memorial School of Nursing) in Pittsfield, she entered private nursing practice. A few years later when war was declared she volunteered for service with the Red Cross and spent nearly a year at a base hospital in France.
In 1921, Mabel began her work as the first school nurse in the Amherst and Pelham system. The preponderance of physical defects discovered in war inductees by army physicians led to the passage of a state law requiring every town within certain population limits to employ a full time school nurse.
There were no initial plans to follow, and only superficial suggestions from the state department of public health to what school nursing should cover. The school nursing program she created grew, under her quiet, persistent guidance, until it provided a comprehensive health history of every child in their career through the public schools. Physical examinations from top to toe were made by school physicians every 3 years in the elementary and junior high grades, and annual examinations given in the high school. Sight and hearing tests were made and teeth inspected. The need for corrective work, when discovered, was reported to parents, who, if they required assistance in filling the need, looked to the particular health project set up for just that purpose. She retired as school nurse in 1950.
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Mabel Spear grew up in North Amherst, attended Amherst schools, and graduated from the high school. Following her graduation from the House of Mercy (Bishop Memorial School of Nursing) in Pittsfield, she entered private nursing practice. A few years later when war was declared she volunteered for service with the Red Cross and spent nearly a year at a base hospital in France.
In 1921, Mabel began her work as the first school nurse in the Amherst and Pelham system. The preponderance of physical defects discovered in war inductees by army physicians led to the passage of a state law requiring every town within certain population limits to employ a full time school nurse.
There were no initial plans to follow, and only superficial suggestions from the state department of public health to what school nursing should cover. The school nursing program she created grew, under her quiet, persistent guidance, until it provided a comprehensive health history of every child in their career through the public schools. Physical examinations from top to toe were made by school physicians every 3 years in the elementary and junior high grades, and annual examinations given in the high school. Sight and hearing tests were made and teeth inspected. The need for corrective work, when discovered, was reported to parents, who, if they required assistance in filling the need, looked to the particular health project set up for just that purpose. She retired as school nurse in 1950.
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