New nurse comes to Grants

Becky Wittenburg, right, a certified nurse practitioner with Pitts Medical Group, talks with office manager Rosie Martinez about a patient's EGK results on Thursday afternoon in Grants. [Photo by Matt Hinshaw/Independent]

By Jim Tiffin
Cibola County Bureau

GRANTS — An experienced certified nurse practitioner has joined the Pitts Medical Group here.

Rebecca "Becky" Wittenburg, MSN, CNP, will work three days each week to begin, possibly working more as the patient load increases.

Wittenburg, 53, has been a nurse practitioner for the past eight years specializing in treatment of diabetes, cardiac health, thyroid and cholesterol diseases. She was a cardiac nurse specialist for 17 years prior to that.

Dr. David Pitts, head of the medical group, said he met Wittenburg in Bostonlast year while he was on a trip. She was seeking a different environment in which to work.

During the past few years Wittenburg has been part of the Southwest Endocrinology Medical Group in Albuquerque.

Added care for Grants
"I wanted to add some depth to our care of diabetes patients in the (Grants) area. It is so prevalent here," Pitts said.

Wittenburg has had a lot of experience in treating patients with diabetes and cardiovascular diseases and he said he wants to get her integrated into the hospital so that the standards of treatment at Cibola General Hospital can be brought up the standards of the larger hospitals in the east,"he said.

"I wanted to get the license that would allow me to treat patients without having a doctor having to sign off on everything I do," Wittenburg said, explaining why she became a nurse practitioner.

In New Mexico, certified nurse practitioners are allowed to practice medicine, diagnose illnesses, write prescriptions and treat patients as physicians do.

Help prevent diabetes
"I want to work in the pre-diabetic area to help prevent diabetes in people," she said

"People who have a family history of diabetes, difficulty losing weight, are heavy around the middle, and have abnormal cholesterol, are pre-diabetic," she said.

"It takes five to 15 years to develop diabetes 2, and if we can catch someone during that period, we can prevent diabetes in them," she said.

For those who may be at risk of having heart problems, specifically coronaries, there are seven risk factors:

• High blood pressure
  
• Diabetes
  
• Abnormal normal cholesterol
  
• Cigarette smoking
  
• Family history of heart problems
  
• Obesity
  
• Sedentary lifestyle

The only way to determine whether anyone has high blood pressure, diabetes or high cholesterol, is to go to a medical clinic and have those areas checked, she said.

"There are no symptoms for high blood pressure, that is why it is called 'the silent killer,' " she said.

Decision was easy
While working in Albuquerque, Wittenburg was seeing a large number of patients with diabetes from Cibola County, specifically Grants, she said.

"So the decision to work in a medically underserved area was easy. I like the idea of building a program where there has not been one. I will also be working at the hospital to help teach and introduce protocols for doctors for when patients are admitted for reasons other than diabetes, but those patients also have diabetes, all the doctor has to do is circle what he wants done," she said.

She graduated from the University of New Mexico with a masters of science degree in nursing in 1982.

Wittenburg's schedule will be 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Tuesdays and Thursdays and some Fridays.

When Pitts is away on travel, she will see patients on Mondays as well.


Pitts Medical Group, and Wittenburg, may be contacted by calling (505) 287-4489.

To contact reporter Jim Tiffin, call (505) 287-2197 or e-mail: jtiffin.independent@yahoo.com.