Martha Schwebach, the nation’s first family nurse practitioner, died July 9 at 86, the Albuquerque Journal reported July 27.
Ms. Schwebach graduated from the Dominican School of Nursing in Great Bend, Kan., before moving to Moriarty, N.M. She spent eight years working as a surgical, obstetric, school and medical clinical nurse.
In 1968, she was selected to participate in the Albuquerque-based University of New Mexico School of Medicine pilot program, and in 1969, she received her certification and became the first family nurse practitioner in the U.S. Ms. Schwebach went on to open a rural clinic in 1977, and then established the Central New Mexico Medical Center in Moriarty in 1981. She retired in 2006.
She was “a pioneer … for going out there and doing something that had not been done before,” said Rosario Medina, PhD, dean of the College of Nursing at the University of New Mexico.
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