School nursing services: the early years.

This is the first in a series of three articles devoted to school nursing practice past, present, and future. This article highlights development of school health programs in the late 1800s to 1950. Since its inception, school nursing service has paralleled events and developments in society. Nursing services were introduced to treat minor illnesses or injuries of children at school, to provide health education to children in school, and to provide follow-up care and teaching in the home setting in order keep the children healthy enough to attend school. As health care moved away from the home into physician-directed hospitals, nursing services in schools shifted from a focus on the public health nurse to the notion of a nurse-teacher with emphasis on health education. By exploring the practice of the early visionaries in school nursing, one realizes that today's nurses have similar challenges and opportunities in providing quality health care to the school community.