Olive M. Whitlock

Olive M. Whitlock Klump (June 8, 1902 – December 14, 1980) was an American nurse and the first industrial nurse to work for the United States federal government, as part of the U.S. Public Health Service's Division of Industrial Hygiene, from 1939 to 1943. She later directed the Los Angeles County Health Department's Bureau of Public Health Nursing for over two decades.

Early life She was born Olive M. Whitlock She earned a B.S. from Washington University in St. Louis in 1930 in nursing; she worked on a ship to support herself during college, first as a waitress, then as its physician-assistant. Whitlock authored the resulting report, which was published two years later. The report recommended that industrial nurses should be recruited from professional nursing channels, established the core duties of industrial nurses, and recommended the number of nurses per employees.

She married Karl Klump in 1942, after which she went by Olive W. Klump.

Los Angeles County Department of Health From 1945 until her retirement in 1968, she was Director of the Bureau of Public Health Nursing of the Los Angeles County Health Department. In 1966, she wrote about the effect on nursing of shifts from general to specialized funding of programs. During 1949–1952, she was president of the California State Nurses Association.

She received the Pearl McIver Public Health Nurse Award in 1966, and the following year the Nurses Association of the Los Angeles County Health Department commissioned a portrait of Klump to hang in the Los Angeles County Hall of Records.

Death and legacy She died on December 14, 1980, in Glendale, California at the age of 78. The American Cancer Society named an award after her.