Visiting home health nurses are a well-known profession and becoming more popular as time grows. The service of public health nursing was carried out on the frontier by nurses under the name of “Visiting nurse services” which were part of the late 19th century health reform out of ‘The Henry Street House’ in 1893, as discussed in the film “Nursing in America – A History of Social Reform”. They held many roles outside of nursing, those roles and missions and struggles will be discussed. The Henry Street House was opened in 1893 by Lilian Wald who established the phrase ‘public health nurse’, as discussed in the film “Nursing in America – A History of Social Reform”. She believed that bedside care should be provided to the public sick poor as well as treating the social and economic problems they faced and providing them with health education (Buhler-Wilkerson). She sent out nurses who traveled door to door to the families of the community of which they served. They were the major health educators to the people of the cities, many of whom could be considered for lack of a better work, ignorant. They knew not of the power of purpose of their own bodies, how to keep themselves healthy, or of their own sex organ functions. The messages of the public health nurse included education on child rearing, why immunizations were important, and information on sanitation and nutrition.
They provided many services to the families they visited. In the beginning of public health nursing, nurses not only cared for the sick, they cooked and cleaned and even brought milk to their patients, as discussed in the film “Sentimental Women Need Not Apply”. Nurses set up camps, games, clubs, cooking classes, picnics, fought for better for schools for the youth, more parks and even better housing situations for patients (Fee, 2010; Hitchcock, 1907, p.460). They were educators, caregivers, as