TORRINGTON – A cowgirl at heart, one of Banner Health Clinic’s newest family medicine providers is right at home in Goshen County.

Monica Teichert, Doctor of Nursing Practice, Certified Family Nurse Practitioner, was born in California and grew up in Idaho. Her work in the intensive care unit in Denver, Colo., led her to meet her husband, Jay, an area native.

“One of the nurses I worked with in Denver lived up here, and had me come up here to rope,” Teichert said. “I was roping at the Pavilion with my friends, when I met my husband.”

In fact, until she returned to nursing school at around 25 years old, Teichert planned on breaking and training horses.

“I decided I wanted a little bit more stability and wanted to explore the healthcare side,” she said. “I’ve wanted to be in medicine since I was a little girl – I was always torn between wanting to train cutting and cow-horses and going into medicine. My biggest influence was my aunt Lorrie. I would go to work with her – she was a chiropractor and owned her own practice – and I would put a nametag on (that said Dr. Monica), and she’d have me take patients back. Everybody called me ‘mini Lorrie’. I was probably 9 or 10 years old. She exposed me to ‘real life’ medicine and has always been an inspiration.

“I always wanted to be able to influence people’s lives like she had,” Teichert said. “(My aunt Lorrie) was very holistic and was very successful.” She added there were many other medical influences in her family: Teichert’s grandfather was a family medicine physician; her grandmother was a nurse; her uncle is still an internal medicine physician; and her mother is a nurse.

Prior to going back to school, Teichert worked in surgery at Banner Health in Torrington from February 2015 to November 2016, which she said helped inspire her to return to the area.

“I wanted to come back here when I was done with school. I feel like Banner is … a family culture,” she said. “I just felt like I was coming back to a comfort zone and a family.”

While receiving her medical education at the University of Wyoming, Teichert earned the Jonas Nurse Leader Scholar, Leadership Program, and the Alpha Pi Chapter of Sigma Theta Tau Award for exemplary clinical excellence in a rural context through research and clinical practice. She said seeing positive results in her patients is what she enjoys most about her job.

“I think the variety of people I get to meet is a big plus,” Teichert said. “Probably more so is when I have people come back to me and tell me they feel better, they’re healthier, and they’re able to enjoy their life from a better perspective.”

And thanks to support from her husband, who is on the Goshen County Team Roping board, Teichert is able to pursue both of her childhood dreams.

“My husband really has made sure I get to do both things,” she said. “There are many times I get home from work and he has the horses saddled and ready to ride. I am one lucky cowgirl.”

Teichert is currently accepting new patients. Visit Banner Health Clinic at 635 Albany Ave. in Torrington or call (307) 532-2107.