A Familiar Face in Mountain Home Returns to Primary Care with Three Decades of Experience

MOUNTAIN HOME, Ark. — Baxter Health is pleased to welcome Debra Schulte, APRN, to the Baxter Health Market Street Family Clinic. Schulte joins a team that includes Dr. John Baltz and Dr. Benjamin Stevens, and she began seeing patients on Monday, June 15.

Schulte is not new to this community. She has spent the better part of 30 years caring for patients in Mountain Home and surrounding areas, building relationships with families across generations. Coming to Baxter Health Market Street Family Clinic is, in many ways, a homecoming.

Schulte has more than 12 years of experience as a nurse practitioner in family practice, urgent care, and emergency settings, often managing all three simultaneously. She has a particular gift for chronic disease management, meaning the kind of ongoing, relationship-based care that keeps patients with diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, and other long-term conditions living well. Her approach to women’s health has been a consistent thread throughout her career, and she completed her Doctorate of Nursing Practice with a specific focus on women’s heart health.

Before earning her advanced practice degree, Schulte spent years as a registered nurse in cardiovascular and thoracic surgical nursing, ICU care, and family practice, giving her a clinical foundation that is both broad and deep. That background shaped how she thinks about patients: as whole people whose health histories matter, whose chronic conditions are connected, and whose care deserves continuity.

Schulte has also given back to the profession throughout her career. She has taught nursing students at the university level, precepted nurse practitioner students, and served on academic and institutional committees. She knows what it takes to train good clinicians, because she has spent years doing it.

“Debra has deep roots in this community and a wealth of clinical experience that our patients are going to feel right away,” Brian Barnett, Vice President of Physician Enterprise and Business Development at Baxter Health, said. “She is exactly the kind of provider who embodies what we mean by compassionate care beyond measure. We are so glad to welcome her home.”

Outside of the clinic, Schulte lives on a small farm with her two German Shepherds, where she grows her own produce and tends to her beehives. She and her husband John, a retired U.S. Army veteran and retired law enforcement officer with 28 years of service, have been married for 34 years. They are the proud parents of two adult children and four grandchildren. In her free time, Schulte enjoys fishing, hiking, riding UTVs, biking, camping, and photography. She also has a deep love of history, including her own family history.

Debra Schulte, APRN, is now accepting new patients at the Baxter Health Market Street Family Clinic. To schedule an appointment, please call (870) 508-7600 or visit BaxterHealth.org.