Hundreds of patients have looked to Huron’s first female nurse practitioner and physician assistant, Nancy Balvin, to see them through a myriad of health concerns.
Now, after 41 1/2 years of practice in her hometown of Huron, Balvin is preparing to hang up her stethescope on July 31 and officially retire.
Balvin has received training as both a nurse practitioner and physicians assistant. Including her work as a registered nurse before and during her education, she has been in the health care field for a total of 59 years.
As a nurse practitioner and physician assistant, she worked at Tschetter Hohm Clinic and is now with Dr. Mark Belyea, in his office, which is located in the Professional Arts Building, Suite 100.
A reception for Balvin is planned from 1 to 4 p.m. Satur-day, Aug. 5, in the Pyle Community room at the Huron Campus Center. Everyone is invited to stop by and greet her.
“It’s been an honor to work with Nancy, first at the Tschetter & Hohm Clinic and more recently at our clinic,” said Dr. Mark Belyea. “All of us have appreciated the years she has been with us.”
Belyea will take over care for her patients without interruption.
Nurse practitioners are advanced practice registered nurses (APRN) educated and trained to provide health promotion and maintenance through the diagnosis and treatment of acute illness and chronic condition.
The present day concept of the APRN as a primary care provider was spurred on by a national shortage of medical doctors.
A physician assistant is a healthcare professional who practices medicine as part of a healthcare team with supervising physicians and other providers.
“In western South Dakota they were more mid-level practitioners due to the shortage of physicians in smaller towns,” Balvin said. “Doctors were not going to smaller towns. But you could have an NP or PA deliver the health care in small communities.

“Most physicians have nurse practitioners or physicians assistants working with them,” she said.
The first nurse practitioner program was offered in the early 1970s at Chapel Hill, N.C. When the program was offered at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks, N.D., Balvin was enrolled in the first class.
“In that first class there were 30 of us,” Balvin said. “Probably 75 percent female.”
A few classmates were from South Dakota, with others hailing from Arizona, Idaho and Oregon.
“There was a smattering of people from across the nation,” Balvin said. “A lot of them were nurses.”
She graduated in October 1975, took her required boards for nurse practitioner and physician assistant, and became the first female provider in Huron.
“At that time it was a certificate degree,” Balvin said. “Now you earn a PhD for nurse practitioner and a master’s degree for physicians assistant. The educational requirements are much higher.”
In South Dakota, a nurse practitioner program is offered at South Dakota State University and the University of South Dakota offers a physicians assistant program.
Balvin said over the past 40-plus years she has seen far less ear infections and tonsillitis in children because of modern treatments and people more aware of infectious diseases.
“We still see a significant amount of  high blood pressure and diabetes, but we have fewer strokes now that we have better medications to treat high blood pressure,” she said.
“People are living much longer,” Balvin added. “I take care of many people in their 90s now. I think many people are more health conscious. They get more exercise, eat healthier and less smoking.
“We have good specialists that help to complete the total picture of taking care of people,” she added.
Balvin said she had her sights set on becoming a nurse when she was 12 or 13.
“I always liked science and I was always intrigued by health care in general,” she said. Balvin attended the three-year nursing program offered by St. John’s Hospital and graduated with her registered nursing degree.
She attended South Dakota State University to get her baccalaureate degree in nursing.
She worked as a nurse until hearing of the new nurse practitioner program that was being offered in North Dakota.
“I was looking for a challenge,” Balvin said of her decision to become a nurse practitioner. “I wanted to advance my nursing education.”
How will she fill her time once she retires?
“Everybody asks me what I have planned,” Balvin said. “I have nothing special lined up. There are many things I would like to do.
“I have many other interests and also plan to do some volunteering,” she said.
“I have really enjoyed working in the Huron community,” Balvin added. “My profession has been very rewarding.