State socialist public health and population policy in nursing practice
Ilona Kappanyos's presentation at the conference of the Hajnal István Social History Association in Székesfehérvár
2021.09.26.
In her presentation at the doctoral section of the Hajnal István Association conference, Ilona Kappanyos examined how state intentions influence the course and circumstances of the work of the health visitor. The health visitor, as a specialist in maternal and infant protection and then general health protection, emerged during the years of World War I, as a central element of the state and social response to the biopolitical-demographic crisis triggered by the war. We can also observe during the years of state socialism that the turning points of population policy coincide with significant changes in the institution of health visitor work. The most obvious example of this is the 1973 population policy resolution, which, among other things, prescribes broader family planning education for the population, thus imposing new tasks on health visitors and expecting new competencies from them – two months later, the resolution was adopted, which raised the training and qualifications of health visitors to college level with the help of the new Faculty of Health Sciences. At the same time, the exact responsibilities of the public health nurse remain flexible and include the local implementation of new vaccines, new screenings, new formulas, and local communication of the state's public health goals.