Nurse, PhD critical of commissioners' view of county grant

Letter to the Editor, 

What can these guys be thinking?  

First they do away with the public Health Department by refusing to fund them. They throw people, who have served Lincoln County well for years, right out of their jobs.Then they have the nerve to complain when the nurses go out and on their own find money to help do the job the commissioners have sliced from the budget.  

The commissioners growl about too much money being spent on administrative costs. Did they not take a look at how the grant money would be distributed when they first gave their consent? Do they have any idea of what it takes to protect the public’s health?  Of course, they don’t. They have already decided that it is cheaper for them to cut the cost of illness prevention, the most cost-effective dollars in any health care budget, than it is to deal with an outbreak of an infectious disease.  

The cost of illness care will not come out of their pockets, so what do they have to lose?  

In the meantime you and I, and our taxes, will bear that expense. And the good families of Lincoln County will bear the pain of illness and lose.

The commissioners complain that people don’t want nurses in their homes. Apparently, they have ignored the data that shows that nurses are among the most trusted people around. Having practiced and taught public health nursing for several years, I have witnessed the effectiveness of programs such as the one for which the nurses here have found funding.  

The supportive presence of a nurse in any home where there are children, especially in a home where children may be at risk, is an invaluable health care tool.  

I have been in homes in poor urban communities where mothers, fathers and grandmothers, have become better caregivers because a nurse has suggested ways to improve family nutrition, supported stress-relieving strategies, and helped families take advantage of resources such as WIC and school nutrition programs.  

The outcome for these families, and for the community as a whole, is always positive and cost-effective.

So again, what can these guys be thinking?  

Maybe they just can’t handle it that this bunch of women accomplished something that they couldn’t, or wouldn’t, do.

— Roberta McCanse, 

RN, PhD