Traveling nurses featured on 'Good Morning America' are working in Cincinnati
Wives Shauna Painter and Sheree Bautista, who work as traveling nurses and were recently featured on "Good Morning America," are temporarily calling Cincinnati home.
Through Trustaff, a travel nurse staffing company and division of the Cincinnati-based healthcare staffing platform Ingenovis Health, the couple has been working as traveling nurses together since 2019.
Painter and Bautista document their travels on their Instagram account, and on Monday, they were featured on "Good Morning America." The couple arrived in the Queen City in May and will work here until September.
"We always try to find a really cool city to go to because we're there for 13 weeks," Painter told The Enquirer.
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Painter and Bautista began working at a hospital together after they started dating in March 2018.
"We like to travel, and we were in this kind of honeymoon phase where we were having so much fun. So we thought, maybe we'll do this travel nursing," Bautista said.
At first, placements at hospitals were competitive. However, once COVID-19 hit, they found themselves traveling to intensive care units across the country.
Last year, Bautista took a six-week assignment at a hospital in Tyler, Texas, where she worked six days per week. At the time, Painter was also pregnant with their son, Sage.
"That was the scariest experience because an average of six people per day were dying (from COVID-19 at her assigned hospital), regardless of their age," Bautista said. "A lot of pregnant women, as well, and she (Shauna) was pregnant... So, I was scared for her and our baby."
Despite working through a pandemic, Bautista and Painter say they love the flexible schedules and freedom in travel nursing. Before committing to a new city, the couple researches the area's restaurants, hiking trails and – with a now-15-month-old in tow – family-friendly activities.
Painter said their time in Cincinnati has been a "pleasant surprise," and they've so far enjoyed Taste of Cincinnati, Findlay Market, free spraygrounds, the Newport Aquarium and Cincinnati-style chili.
The couple plans to continue travel nursing until Sage reaches school age.
"If you're a single person with no commitments, 100% do it," Painter said. "If you have a family and you can make it work and travel with them, that's the best of both worlds."
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: 'Good Morning America' travel nurses are working in Cincinnati
