RNs on the road: Traveling nurses, friends combine passions to see the U.S., help babies
Phot by Grace Beahm/The Post and Courier
Suzanne Batterton (left) and Windy Steiner became friends while working as traveling nurses in a neonatal intensive-care unit in California and have been traveling and working together since. They live in Mount Pleasant and work at MUSC.
The day they met -- at a hospital in Sacramento -- Windy Steiner and Suzanne Batterton decided to go to Napa Valley together.
They've been travel companions ever since.
In the past few months, the two 27-year-olds have explored Yosemite, Lake Tahoe and Lassen Volcanic National Park. They've experienced San Diego, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Albuquerque, Savannah and now Charleston, where they'll stay until March 5.
"It's definitely much more fun to travel with somebody," Batterton said.
The women are traveling nurses working in various hospitals' neonatal intensive-care units.
During their 12-hour shifts, they strive to save babies' lives. On their days off, they explore the surrounding areas.
So while based at the Medical University of South Carolina Children's Hospital, they have viewed the oak allee of Boone Hall Plantation, admired historic houses, walked on beaches and eaten at FIG, Husk and Virgina's on King (where Steiner has dined three times).
"Y'all have so many good places to eat," she says, adding that one can't get grits in California.
Steiner is originally from Mobile, Ala., and Batterton from St. Louis. Neither had lived outside their hometowns when they decided to become traveling nurses.
Steiner made the decision after recruiters came to her nursing school at the University of South Alabama during her last semester.
"It just sounded right up my alley," Steiner said. "I love traveling, but not just going somewhere and doing touristy things -- I like to go and be immersed in a place."
A job that combines travel and babies, two of her loves, has been a dream come true, she said.
Neonatology, or the branch of medicine concerned with the care of newborns, is rewarding, but some days it can be terribly sad, Steiner said. She has seen babies die. She has attended their funerals.
Sometimes, parents look to the nurses instead of their own families for help through the grieving process.
"We knew their baby's personality the way they did," Steiner said. "We knew little things about their baby that only they and us knew. It's a unique relationship we have with the family."
At the medical unit in Sacramento where they met, Batterton and Steiner were the only young travel nurses.
They quickly found they had plenty in common, Batterton said. They had similar ideas and interests. They both like to be outdoors, to be active, to eat at nice restaurants and to laugh.
"We became friends right away," Batterton said.
When it was time to leave their first assignment, which had lasted 13 weeks, they decided to try to get their next jobs together.
They did, in San Diego, and after 13 weeks there, in the Lowcountry.
The women have shared places to live in San Diego and Mount Pleasant, finding short-term leases online, Batterton said. They like each other's company, but being roommates also saves them money.
Their travel company, American Mobile Healthcare, gives them a housing allowance as well as health and dental insurance, a stipend for weekly meals and incidentals and often a completion bonus.
It also pays them by the hour.
The Medical University hires traveling nurses only when there is a critical need, according to spokeswoman Heather Woolwine. "Travelers" are more expensive and the hospital prefers to recruit and retain permanent employees when possible.
"The NICU is a highly specialized area, so you can imagine how difficult it can be from time to time to replace a nurse who decides to leave," Woolwine said. "Travelers can be a huge help when you needed someone yesterday and there is not someone able to fill a permanent position at that moment."
Batterton and Steiner currently are the only traveling nurses at MUSC Children's Hospital.
Next week, when their assignment is complete, the women will part ways.
They hope it won't be for long.
Batterton will head to Boston to spend time with a sibling who is expecting a baby.
Steiner will be in St. Louis, fulfilling a commitment to a hospital there.
After that, the women would like to do another assignment together. They're talking about Hawaii.
"It's good to go with somebody because you ... know someone in the city. There is someone to go and do things with," Steiner says. "I don't know what I'd do without her."
