Hospital work a mission of love for native Santa Fean
From high school on, St. Vincent chief nurse executive knew her future was helping patients, fostering growth at hospital
When Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center’s Lillian Montoya talks to new employees about careers at the hospital, she talks about Monica Leyba.
Montoya, chief administrative officer at the hospital, said that to her, the chief nurse executive personifies what can happen when a young person makes a commitment to a career and sticks with it.
Leyba, 51, a Santa Fe native whose family name is Martinez, was not only born in the hospital but worked as a cafeteria aide, making $3.92 an hour while she was a student at Santa Fe High. She also attended Agua Fría Elementary School and St. Anne’s Parish School.
She worked her way up though various positions at the hospital, and eventually returned to college to study nursing. Now one of the top nursing executives, Leyba helps supervise some 400 nurses at the Christus St. Vincent hospital and its medical and specialty clinics.
Leyba even met her husband, Frank Leyba, in the hospital cafeteria, where he worked as a cook.
“She’s deeply rooted in this community, and she grew up in this hospital,” Montoya said.
For Leyba, it has been a mission of love since childhood. “I always wanted to be a nurse. I always wanted to help people,” she said.
But the path has not been a straight line.
After high school, she continued to work at the hospital and enrolled at the old College of Santa Fe, which at that time had a nursing program. But after starting a family — the couple have two grown children — Leyba paused from the degree program to continue workThe
ing. She had positions in the business office of the hospital, then moved to radiology, where she helped with the X-ray files.
It was there where a doctor encouraged her to pursue her dream of nursing.
With support from her husband, Leyba returned to nursing school in 1994 — the day her youngest child started kindergarten. “His first day in kindergarten was my first day back at nursing school,” she said.
She continued to work parttime while pursuing the degree at Santa Fe Community College. It took four years.
“I did homework in the early morning and after I put the kids to bed,” she said.
After graduating, she became a floor nurse in the rehabilitation department, then moved on to inpatient services, behavioral health and orthopaedics.
But she wasn’t finished. And when Leyba’s son started college in 2007, so did she. Leyba continued school with a dual master’s degree in nursing and homehealth administration from the University of Phoenix.
Now she is taking what she learned and using it to help others who want to further their careers.
Leyba is helping the hospital partner with Northern New Mexico College and SFCC on their nursing programs. She also wants to talk with her staff more about stress and the need for debriefing after experiencing a stressful medical situation or patient encounter.
“Nursing is a limited resource,” Leyba said. “So what we can do here to support them, so we can keep them, we need to do.”
One of those she wants to keep is her son, who has a bachelor’s degree in nursing and is working in the hospital’s emergency department.
The family recently greeted another generation, Leyba’s third grandchild who was born at the hospital and likely helped along by some of the nurses she has mentored.
“For us to be able to provide that care, I’m committed,” she said. “My heart is here.”