First family nurse practitioner in US, Martha Schwebach, was 'a pioneer'

Martha Schwebach is remembered for being a trailblazer in nursing and rural health care in New Mexico.

Schwebach — considered to be the nation’s first family nurse practitioner — opened a medical clinic in Moriarty to give Estancia Valley residents a closer place to go to get treated. She lobbied to give nurse practitioners the ability to prescribe medicine on their own.

Schwebach even met a U.S. president after being named as one of the 10 most outstanding young women in the country for her work.

She was “a pioneer ... for going out there and doing something that had not been done before,” said Rosario Medina, dean of the College of Nursing at the University of New Mexico.

Schwebach died on July 9 from natural causes. She was 86.

“She was given the gift of a brilliant mind and an amazing memory that helped her in her role as a nurse practitioner, a family nurse practitioner, who assessed, diagnosed and then knew how to treat and prescribe,” Schwebach’s daughter, Cyndi Schatzman, said in a phone interview.

The eyes and ears of a ‘distant physician’

Martha Schwebach was born on Feb. 3, 1939, in Pratt, Kansas.

She graduated from the Dominican School of Nursing in Great Bend, Kansas, before moving to Moriarty in 1960 to operate a farm with her husband, Don Schwebach.

For the next eight years, she worked in Albuquerque and Estancia as a surgical, obstetric, school and medical clinical nurse.

In 1968, Martha Schwebach was selected to participate in an UNM School of Medicine pilot program that was designed to improve the health care given in rural areas.

In the March 10, 1969, issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, Dr. Robert Oseasohn — one of the two men to select Schwebach for the program — said among the tasks a “family nurse practitioner” could perform are “those emergency and routine duties which a registered nurse is permitted to perform — and act as the hands, eyes and ears of a distant physician.”

In a July 29, 1974, Southwest Daily Times article, reporter Jean Bevan wrote Estancia Valley residents told UNM medical school faculty that Martha Schwebach was “the logical choice” for the program.

“She knew the town and the people, and had already gained broad experience in several veins of nursing, including working in a hospital emergency room,” Bevan wrote.

Schatzman said her mother had to develop her own X-rays, lab drawings and do diagnoses herself because that was part of her training.

Schwebach worked at the Hope Medical Center in Estancia during and after her time in the program, and in 1969, she received her certification and became the first family nurse practitioner in the country, said Dr. Kristin Kuhlmann, Eastern New Mexico University associate professor of nursing.

While Kuhlmann never worked with Schwebach, in 2024, she interviewed her for a project on the history of nurse practitioners in New Mexico.

“What made Martha such an excellent choice for being the first FNP was her level-headed, intelligent and compassionate approach to caring for patients,” Kuhlmann said.

Schwebach cared for her patients at all hours of the day.

Schatzman said she remembers having dinner when patients drove up to their house and honked their horns.

“Mom left the table to go to the clinic and take care of them,” Schatzman said.

After nearly a decade, in 1977, Schwebach left Hope Medical Center to open a clinic in Moriarty.

“(I) wanted to bring a health care building to Moriarty so when I retired, the city would have a building for a nurse practitioner and physician,” she wrote on a piece of paper provided to the Journal.

The practice grew and she knew she needed a bigger building, Schatzman said. So, in 1981, Schwebach established the Central New Mexico Medical Center in Moriarty.

Schwebach, a mother of four children, not only treated patients, but tirelessly lobbied to get prescription rights for nurse practitioners, which Schatzman said was “part of how the family nurse practitioner evolved.”

“Prescribing would save the patients from driving the 60 miles to an Albuquerque physician,” Martha Schwebach wrote.

Nurse practitioner leaders like Martha Schwebach “championed the need for independent practitioners as they continued to provide essential health care services in rural and underserved areas,” Kuhlmann said.

“As a result, in 1993, New Mexico nurse practitioners received independent prescriptive authority,” Kuhlmann said. “Prior to this authorization, New Mexico required that nurse practitioners entered into a collaborative agreement with a physician and restricted prescriptive authority to non-controlled drugs.”

In 2003, Schwebach left the medical center and would go on to serve as a substitute nurse practitioner before retiring in 2006.

Over the years, Schwebach received many accolades, including being named one of the Ten Outstanding Young Women of America and meeting President Gerald Ford. She received the Governor’s Award for Outstanding New Mexico Women and, in 2023, the New Mexico Center for Nursing Excellence honored her with a Nursing Legend Award.

Schatzman said her mom was grateful to everyone who entrusted their loved ones to her and to UNM’s School of Medicine and nursing program.

Aside from being a pioneer in nursing, Martha Schwebach enjoyed photography, painting, flowers and clouds.

“Her favorite thing in the world was to be in the backyard with flowers in full bloom and the mountains in the background while having ice cream and popsicles with the grandkids,” Schatzman said.

Martha Schwebach was buried at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Cemetery in Moriarty on July 19.