Sports Illustrated model Maggie Rawlins is a COVID nurse

As one particular of Sporting activities Illustrated’s latest swimsuit versions, Maggie Rawlins is placing pulses racing.

But Rawlins, 28, can help with that blood force spike — she is a registered nurse.

The South Carolina indigenous, who has modeled for lingerie manufacturer Intimissimi and landed the October deal with of Elle Croatia, labored in a Queens healthcare facility for the duration of the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic final spring.

“I was doing the job in LA, and I booked a flight again [to South Carolina] thinking it would be a month or so,” Rawlins advised The Post. Then the connect with went out for nurses, so she promptly raised her hand and headed to New York Town at the finish of March 2020.

“I had the ability established as a nurse, and it was a accountability far more than everything else . . . You just hit the floor working. There had been a good deal of road blocks.”

Maggie Rawlins on the cover of Sports Illustrated, hitting stands in July.
Maggie Rawlins on the deal with of Sporting activities Illustrated, hitting stands in July.
James Macari /Sporting activities ILLUSTRATED

Questioned if any individuals or co-personnel realized of her working day task, she reported: “Absolutely not. And I really do not feel any person would have cared at that stage.”

The 5-foot, 7-inch Rawlins was scouted for modeling as a teenager. But she often required to turn into a nurse, like her grandmother who labored overnights in labor and delivery. Following finishing school, she was doing the job as a hematology oncology nurse in South Carolina when a Miami agency arrived at out.

“At 1st I thought it was a bit of a scam, but my nurse supervisor reported to go for it. She reported to maintain my license active, and if I did not like it, I could often return,” she reported.

Rawlins preserved her credentials by volunteering with nonprofit OneWorld Health and fitness, and has traveled to nations these as Uganda and Nicaragua, doing the job as a triage nurse, before leaping again in to help the pandemic-ravaged NYC.

And in December, Rawlins, who is married to her childhood neighbor George Douglas III and now lives in Manhattan, obtained a further life-changing connect with: She’d been tapped to pose for the prestigious bikini bible.

“I had no notion I was even on SI’s radar. I obtained a connect with from my agent stating I was up for it. Then two hours later, he reported, ‘You’re verified for Sporting activities Illustrated, and you’re taking pictures in three months,’ ” reported Rawlins, incorporating that she had been indulging in red wine and had to swiftly bounce again into form.

“I did a good deal of at-property Pilates and the Sculpt Society app with Megan Roup,” reported Rawlins, whose beloved SI swim versions are Kathy Eire and Elle Macpherson.

She hopes this bikini-baring second provides attention to health-treatment personnel.

“I want to strain that I was only there for three months, which is nothing at all when compared to the sacrifices they have created,” she reported, incorporating, “COVID has not stopped for them.”