The Colville examiner. [volume] (Colville, Wash.) 1907-1948, 1921-03-19
TUBERCULOSIS
NURSE COMES
STEVENS THE TWENTY-SECOND
COUNTY IN STATE TO TAKE
UP THIS WORK
Miss Wilhelmina GlOl;ner Comes
Highly Recommended and Quail
fied-Specialist in Tuberculosis

The Stevens county tuberculosis
nurse, Miss Wilhelmina Glokner, as
sumed her duties Wednesday, hav-
ing arrived from New York City
on Monday. She was accompanied
here by Mrs. B. B. Buchanan OF
Seattle, executive secretary of the
Washington tuberculosis associa-
ton, who states that Miss Glokner
is the 22d' county tuberculosis nurse
to take up this work in Washington.
Miss Grace Quirk, tuberculosis nurse
of Walla Walla county, who is now
acting as state supervising nurse,
will be here this week to assist in
getting the work started in Stevens
county.
Miss Glokner is registered nurse,
graduating from Hebrew hospital,
Baltimore, 1915. She served two
years with the Baltimore health de-
partment, a year with the health
department at New. Britain, Conn.,,
and did industrial work with the
Interchurch movement in New York
City. She served with the vista
tion department of Bellevue hospi-
tai in tuberculosis work.
The county nurse will have offices
in the court house. Saturdays will
be office days, the balance of the
time being spent throughout the
county under the direction of the
commissioners. The Stevens County
Antituberculosis league has contrib
uted $500 toward the purchase of
an automobile for the use of the
nurse.
Although Miss Glokner has had an
unusual variety of training in gen
eral nursing work, she has specialize
ed in tuberculosis, and comes highly
accredited for this special line of
work. She knows what it is to
make 80 calls day in city dis
tricts, climb as many as seven flights
of stairs to make a visit, and keep
it up for months at a time. She
drives a car, and her experience has
included as high as 300 calls a month
in general visitation work.
A county nurse makes recon-
mendations and gives advice, but
does not make any official diagnosis
or prescribe remedies. 1t is her
duty to offer common sense advice
where such advice seems advisable,
but this advice does not include the
recommendation of any physician,
dentist, or treatment. She is able
to detect tuberculosis in many cases
by symptoms and history, and can
recommend diet not only for tuber-
cular cases but for under-nourished
people, particularly children. When
a physician is in charge of the case,
the nurse absolutely carries out his
instructions on treatment.
The county nurse will keep
complete record of all work and
visitation, and on matters proper to
be reported will make monthly re-
ports to the county commissioners,
to the county antituberculosis league,
and to the state tuberculosis asso-
citation. Although the county tuber-
culosis nurse will be largely assisted
by the county antituberculosis league,
she is paid by and absolutely under
orders of the board of county COM
missioners. The primary purpose
of her present employment is to
assist in the fight now being waged
to eradicate tuberculosis from the
county, and so far as the county
treausury is concerned, to assist in
tightening the burden of tubercular
indigents now resting on the tax
payers. 1t is not humanity possible
to Immediately eradicate the disease
and correct the evils which have
grown with the years, but start is
to be made in the constructive work
of reducing indigency due to disease,
and to prevent further increases in
the amount of county funds required
to keep indigents in this county. At
present 1870 of current expense
funds goes to county indigents, the
percentage showing a steady in
crease in the last 10 years. Much
of this cost is due to tuberculosis,
which last year killed 147,000 people
in the United States, and which is
the cause of one-third of the poverty
in the country.
Twenty-nine counties in Washing
ton now have antituberculosis leagues,
23 counties have authorized county
tuberculosis nurses, Stevens county is
the 22d county to put a nurse to
work, and Franklin will be the 23d
county next month.