Martha K. Schwebach
Born (1939-02-03) February 3, 1939
Pratt, Kansas
Alma materDominican School of Nursing, University of New Mexico School of Medicine
Known forFirst family nurse practitioner in the United States
SpouseDon Schwebach
AwardsTen Outstanding Young Americans
Governor's Award for Outstanding New Mexico Women
Nursing Legend Award
Scientific career
FieldsMedicine, Nurse practitioner
Martha Schwebach (third from the right) meets with President Gerald Ford in the Oval Office, along with the other honorees of the Ten Outstanding Young Women of America award in 1974. The women, five on either side of the president, laugh or smile.
Martha Schwebach (third from the right) meets with President Gerald Ford in the Oval Office, along with the other honorees of the Ten Outstanding Young Women of America award in 1974
Martha Schwebach, a white lady in her eighties now, white-haired in a black dress, sits in a wheelchair holding her Nursing Legend Award in front of a gold curtain at an award ceremony. She smiles.
Martha Schwebach holds her Nursing Legend Award.

Martha K. Schwebach (born February 3, 1939) was the first family nurse practitioner in the United States.[1] After joining a pilot program at the University of New Mexico designed to address a physician shortage in non-metropolitan and rural areas, Schwebach received her certification in 1969 and went on to practice in the Estancia Valley and Moriarty, New Mexico.[2] In 1974, she was honored at the White House as one of Ten Outstanding Young Women of America.[3] Schwebach worked as a family nurse practitioner and clinic administrator in rural New Mexico until her retirement in 2006, during which years she also wrote, lectured, and consulted in various locations across the United States on the special health care needs of rural America.[4]

Biography

Martha Schwebach examines an X-ray with a patient
Martha Schwebach examines an X-ray with a patient
Martha Schwebach sits in the middle of her family at the 2023 awards ceremony for the New Mexico Center for Nursing Excellence. Family members, middle-aged, are dressed formally before a background of a gold sequined curtain. Martha, elderly, with white curly hair, is seated in a wheelchair, with her husband Don behind.
Martha Schwebach sits in the middle of her family at the 2023 awards ceremony for the New Mexico Center for Nursing Excellence.

Martha K. Schwebach was born Martha Sue Keene to Sidney and Alice Keene in Pratt, Kansas, on February 3, 1939. Schwebach attended the Dominican School of Nursing at Great Bend, Kansas (Class of 1960). After graduating, she worked "as a surgical, obstetrical, school and medical office nurse" in Albuquerque and Estancia.[5] Between September 1968 and January 1969, Schwebach participated in an intensive certification pilot program at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine, becoming the nation's first family nurse practitioner.[6] The nation's first nurse practitioner program, established at the University of Colorado in 1965 by Henry Silver and Loretta Ford, trained pediatric nurse practitioners rather than family nurse practitioners. The University of New Mexico project, which was designed to improve healthcare at all ages by addressing a shortage of physicians across the country and especially in rural areas, was developed by physicians Robert Oseasohn and Edward Mortimer, who visited Hope Clinic in the rural Estancia Valley on a weekly basis during Schwebach's tenure.[7][8]

On April 4, 1977, Schwebach opened the Moriarty Medical Clinic.[9] In 1981, she established the Central New Mexico Medical Center in Moriarty, where she worked until 2003 before becoming locum tenens until her retirement in 2006.[4]

Schwebach was selected as one of the Ten Outstanding Young Women of America in 1974, an honor for which she was recognized by President Gerald Ford.[3] In 1990, she received the Governor's Award for Outstanding New Mexico Women from the New Mexico Commission on the Status of Women.[10] The New Mexico Center for Nursing Excellence honored her with a Nursing Legend Award on April 15, 2023.[11] [12]

Impact

Nurse practitioners filled a critical gap in United States rural healthcare. By training nurses to treat patients of all ages—providing "health check-ups ... birth control services, antepartal and postpartal care, maintenance of the chronically ill, and care in the case of acute illness or accident"—family nurse practitioners were able provide care for areas unable to maintain a doctor.[13][14] As The Wall Street Journal noted in the early 1970s, the number of nurse practitioners (or "supernurses") grew rapidly: "Supernurses, almost all of them women, didn't exist a decade ago; today there are some 10,000".[7] A writer for The Washington Star pointed out that the nurse practitioner role "reflected new career fields for women".[8]

References

  1. ↑ "20 Years of Independent Practice for Nurse Practitioners in New Mexico". The University of New Mexico College of Nursing Annual Report: 19. 2013.
  2. ↑ Quint, K. M. (July 1972). "The Nurse Practitioner-Hope Medical Center, Estancia New Mexico". In Bible, B. (ed.). Health Care Delivery in Rural Areas (4th ed.). Chicago, Illinois: Department of Rural and Community Health, American Medical Association. pp. 8–21.
  3. 1 2 "Ten National Award Winners" (PDF). Outstanding Young Women of America. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress. ISBN 0-87197-082-1.
  4. 1 2 Frost, Suzanne (12 January 1988). "First Family Nurse Practitioner in the Nation: Vanguard of Health Care in the Estancia Valley". East Mountain Telegraph. p. 3.
  5. ↑ Brierly, Carol (October 1973). "Thanks to Martha Schwebach". Prism: The Socioeconomic Magazine of the AMA. Chicago: American Medical Association. 1 (7): 23–25.
  6. ↑ Eberle, B.; Richard, R.; Oseasohn, R.; Schwebach, M. (February 1975). "Primary Care by a Nurse Practitioner in a Rural Clinic". American Journal of Nursing. 75 (2): 267–271.
  7. 1 2 Lublin, J.B. (3 July 1974). "Filling the Gap: 'Supernurses' Provide Care for Thousands, Helping Doctors Cope". The Wall Street Journal. p. 13.
  8. 1 2 Dean, R. (4 December 1974). "Measuring 10 Young Women by Outstanding Accomplishments". Washington Star. p. E4.
  9. ↑ "First of Kind in State—Moriarty Clinic opened". Torrance County Citizen. Vol. 19, no. 31. 4 August 1977.
  10. ↑ Sandoval, Diana (21 May 1990). "Commission To Honor 30 Outstanding Women". Albuquerque Journal.
  11. ↑ Lorino, Meggin (2 May 2023). "The New Mexico Center for Nursing Excellence celebrates the winners of the 2022 Nursing Excellence Awards" (PDF). New Mexico Center for Nursing Excellence. Archived (PDF) from the original on 28 May 2023. Retrieved 14 August 2023.
  12. ↑ Lorino, Meggin (8 March 2023). "Center For Nursing Excellence announces winners of the Nursing Legend Awards" (PDF). New Mexico Center for Nursing Excellence. Archived (PDF) from the original on 28 May 2023. Retrieved 14 August 2023.
  13. ↑ "Expanded Role: Family". Nurse Practitioners and the Expanded Role of the Nurse: A Bibliography. Hyattsville, Maryland: US Department of Health, Education, and Welfare: 46–47. November 1978.
  14. ↑ Michaelson, Michael (March 1970). "Will Your Next Doctor Be a Doctor?". Today's Health: 37–41.
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