Florence Charters: Soother of suffering
Our current health care system is focusing increasingly on home and community care. SickKids pioneered an early outpatient model by developing innovative ways to reach out to the community.In 1908, Florence Charters became the first social service nurse at SickKids. Originally visiting the homes of outpatients on foot or streetcar, Charters was able to double her patient visits thanks to the motor car John Ross Robertson, Chairman of the Board of Trustees, purchased for her use in 1909. This was at a time when there were very few motor vehicles in the city. According to one report, there were just over 2,000 cars on the streets in 1908.
Florence Charters and her team became the pioneers for outpatient visits.
Charters criss-crossed the city visiting the homes of an average of 33 families a day. In addition to reapplying dressings, instructing parents in proper hygiene, and checking in with patients recently released from the hospital, a primary role of Charters’ was to supervise the feeding of children whose parents had applied to the hospital for pasteurized milk.
This was the first time in hospital history that a District Nurse had a motor vehicle to do her work, attracting the attention of the media and medical professionals across the continent. Through the program, Charters made over 10,000 visits a year, to roughly 1,000 families.
As the program spread, across the city and eventually across Ontario, SickKids became the centre of a hub-and-spoke structure for child welfare and health. Charters and her team, under the supervision of Dr. Alan Brown, were tasked with coordinating nurses responsible for welfare and health, home visits, follow-ups and discharge from the hospital.
To read more about historical SickKids innovations, read the recently published The History of The Hospital for Sick Children.
