Countryside Welcomes a New Family Nurse Practitioner

Countryside Welcomes a New Family Nurse Practitioner

By Leonard Shapiro

Amanda Butler knows exactly when she became enamored with the idea of a career in medicine.

It happened for the Warrenton native when she was in the sixth grade. Her mother, Sandy, was badly injured in a motorcycle accident and spent several months in and out of the hospital.

“She had wonderful doctors, nurses and providers,” Butler said. “I saw what they did for her and ever since then, medicine was always a big passion for me. I knew what I wanted to do at a very young age.”

Family Nurse Practitioner Amanda Butler at her Countryside Family Practice office.

Photo by Leonard Shapiro

These days, nearly 20 years later, Butler’s passion is quite obvious, both to her patients and her colleagues at Countryside Family Practice in Marshall. In December, she started setting up shop there as a Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP), where she has office hours on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

“We’re very fortunate that she’s here,” said Dr. Robert Houska, who, along with Countryside founder Dr. Norris Royston, was instrumental in bringing Butler to Marshall. “She has a lot of experience in pediatrics and emergency room medicine, and she’s very well rounded. She has 13 years of great people skills. It’s just a big plus for the practice.”

Butler wasted little time pursuing her passion. She graduated from Liberty High School in three years, then became a Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) and began working for Warrenton pediatrician Margaret Jeffries-Honeywell for two years. She did a registered nurse program at Lord Fairfax Community College and graduated there in 2013, then was employed in the emergency room at Culpeper Hospital until 2020.

At that point, she started commuting to Harrisonburg from her home in Midland in southern Fauquier County to complete a bachelors and masters program at James Madison University. She and her husband Corey, a Warrenton based firefighter and EMT, have two children, Emma, 5, and Tripp, 3, and somehow manage to make each of their frenetic schedules work.

“As an FNP, I treat patients from newborns to older adults,” Butler said. “I treat acute or chronic illness, do preventative medicine, pretty much everything.

I’m also fortunate to have joined a practice (Countryside) where I can also consult with two doctors (Royston and Houska) with great experience and unbelievable knowledge.”

Butler said she was drawn to nursing as opposed to going to medical school because “it’s a little different approach to medicine. We follow a very holistic approach in caring for an individual, taking into consideration a number of factors and how they all connect together.

“It’s mind, body and soul. I can do a very individualized approach and take care of each person’s specific needs…I can proscribe, treat and diagnose. We work very similarly to what the doctors do.”

And Butler’s ability to do it in an area where she’s spent her entire life also has great meaning. Her parents own Warrenton-based MRC Plumbing and her husband’s family operates Butler Eichner Septic based in Bealeton.

“I was born and raised here,” she said. “I take a lot of pride in being in this community and from this area. I love caring for the patients, building relationships and finding ways to optimize their health. That’s why I got into this, and I couldn’t the happier.”