The population health nurse is reviewing the recommendations within the Report of the Massachusetts Sanitary Commission drafted by Lemuel Shattuck. What should the nurse identify as being the most important effect of this document?

Question

1. Establishing state boards of health.
2. Establishing workhouses for the sick poor.
3. Mobilizing social reform to sanitary engineering.
4. Refuting that poverty was the result of deficiencies in moral character.

Answer 1

Answer: 1
Explanation: 1. The Massachusetts Sanitary Commission was established in response to concern over the effects of crowded living conditions, poverty, and poor sanitation on health. In 1850, Lemuel Shattuck drafted the commission's findings. The Report of the Massachusetts Sanitary Commission included recommendations for establishing state and local health departments, systematic collection of vital statistics, and sanitation inspections, and for instituting programs for school health and control of mental illness, alcohol abuse, and tuberculosis. Other recommendations included public education regarding sanitation, control of nuisances, periodic physical examinations, supervision of the health of immigrants, and construction of model tenements. In addition, the report recommended improved education for nurses and the inclusion of content on preventive medicine and sanitation in medical school curricula. Until the late 19th century, it was held that poverty was the result of one's moral character. Workhouses for the poor had been in place since the late 18th century. Chadwick's Inquiry into the Sanitary Conditions of the Labouring Population of Great Britain shifted the view from social reform to sanitary engineering.