Rooted in Community

Pen­ny Buen­ing, FNP‑C, nurse prac­ti­tion­er with Quin­cy Med­ical Group, has deep roots in the com­mu­ni­ties she now serves in Can­ton and Lewis­town. Grow­ing up on the Clark and Lewis Coun­ty line on a farm, she learned the impor­tance of fam­i­ly, friends, faith, and com­mu­ni­ty. She spent as much time as pos­si­ble farm­ing along­side her father — dri­ving trac­tors, tak­ing grain to the ele­va­tor via the fer­ry, check­ing cat­tle, and help­ing with pigs.

Her father instilled in her a love for farm­ing, the prin­ci­ple that ​“an ounce of pre­ven­tion is worth more than a pound of cure,” the val­ue of com­mu­ni­ty rela­tion­ships, and a strong work eth­ic. Her mom was an edu­ca­tor and instilled Penny’s love for learn­ing, which is reflect­ed in the impres­sive alpha­bet soup fol­low­ing her name: AG ECON BS, MBA, BSN, MNP, plus sev­er­al certifications.

“Grow­ing up here taught me what it means to show up for peo­ple. Those val­ues nev­er leave you,” Pen­ny said. Her time in 4H rein­forced that atten­tion to detail is the secret to suc­cess. At just 12 years old, she became the children’s Sun­day School teacher at Williamstown Chris­t­ian Church, a role she took great pride in. She also loved play­ing sports, which taught her the impor­tance of team­work, sports­man­ship, and practice.

Her love of agri­cul­ture led her first into a 13-year career in ag sales and mar­ket­ing. How­ev­er, when she became a mom, she want­ed a career that allowed her to be more present with her fam­i­ly while still mak­ing a dif­fer­ence in people’s lives. Nurs­ing became that next path.

“When I became a mom, I became much more focused on health and well­ness. Healthy lifestyle choic­es, food choic­es, and activ­i­ties were impor­tant for both myself and my daugh­ter,” she said.

Over the years, she gained expe­ri­ence in trau­ma, car­diac, and wound care before decid­ing to become a nurse prac­ti­tion­er. A deci­sion she calls ​“the best deci­sion ever.”

“I want­ed to be part of people’s care in a way that allowed me to lis­ten, guide, and build rela­tion­ships,” she said.

Fol­low­ing in the foot­steps of her grand­fa­ther and father-in-law, both of whom served the area as physi­cians, Pen­ny val­ues the trust and con­nec­tion that come from serv­ing her neigh­bors. Her grand­fa­ther was a small-town doc­tor in Williamstown who made house calls, deliv­ered babies, per­formed den­tal work, worked from an office in his home, and did not have office hours. 

Her father-in-law, Dr. Ron Buen­ing, start­ed his prac­tice in Can­ton in the ear­ly 1980s and was a part­ner with Dr. Gene Chil­dress, who ran the Lewis­town clin­ic for many years. Though he fin­ished his career and retired in Spring­field, MO, he has returned to the area and remains an invalu­able resource to Pen­ny. ​“His phi­los­o­phy is focused on real­ly get­ting to know your patient and then per­son­al­ly tai­lor­ing their care,” she said.

This focus on per­son­al con­nec­tion mir­rors the spir­it of the com­mu­ni­ty Pen­ny serves. ​“Peo­ple here look out for one anoth­er. We’ve faced floods, droughts, and hard times, but we always come togeth­er. It’s some­thing tru­ly spe­cial,” Pen­ny shared. 

She also appre­ci­ates the unique tra­di­tions of rur­al life. ​“In a rur­al com­mu­ni­ty, we also have our own hol­i­day cal­en­dar. For exam­ple, we have a par­ty when we com­plete plant­i­ng sea­son or har­vest sea­son. This cel­e­bra­tion like­ly cel­e­brates any birth­day or oth­er occa­sions that occur­ring dur­ing that sea­son,” she said. ​“We also rec­og­nize deer sea­son, mush­room sea­son, and school being out as a rea­son to celebrate.

Out­side of work, Pen­ny enjoys spend­ing time with fam­i­ly and friends, gar­den­ing, can­ning, read­ing, grow­ing flow­ers, play­ing with her pets, par­tic­i­pat­ing in church activ­i­ties, and spend­ing time at the farm.

Ready to sched­ule an appoint­ment with Pen­ny? Give us a call at 573−288−5949 (Can­ton) or 573−215−2715 (Lewis­town).