Road Warrior Life in a Pandemic

My current professional role as a learning consultant with Cerner Corporation has me in a 100% travel role where I have the opportunity to interact with thousands of different people across the world — and pull in some great Hilton Honors, Delta Airlines, and AVIS travel points.  However, my travel schedule suddenly stopped in March along with most of the world as we all began to grapple with what it means to travel and work in a pandemic.  

On June 1, my organization made the decision that the work that my team accomplished was so important to the success of our clients and hospital staff that it was time to hit the road again as a Road Warrior.  Since June, I have embraced traveling during a pandemic for 17 of the last 21 weeks.  During this time I have had the chance to work with a variety of healthcare systems from the great food in Knoxville, TN, to the rolling hills of Morgantown and Huntington, WV, all the way to the foothills of upstate New York in Valhalla, NY.    

While I thought that traveling for me during a pandemic was going to be drastically different, I really didn’t feel too impacted.  There were some times that were uncomfortable and not always ideal but I always had three basic rules that I worked hard to stick by to keep myself, my family and friends, and my clients safe. 

The pandemic approach to travel. 

1. Wear a mask.  This one was and is too easy; just wear a mask.  With my work in hospitals I was regularly wearing a mask 10+ hours a day.  Masks are the simplest and easiest thing that you can do to care for yourself and those around you.  
2. Sanitize before and after high contact areas.  Everytime I would interact with a “high contact area” (airplane seat, grocery store, elevators, doors, etc.) I tried to sanitize my hands and wipe down surfaces that I was interacting with.  These little steps helped reduce the chance of me potentially spreading or coming in contact with COVID-19.  
3. Avoid large groups.  When at all possible, I always tried to avoid larger groups that had a higher chance of spreading COVID-19.  This typically looked like avoiding restaurants and keeping to myself in my hotel room.  While this always wasn’t fun, these were little steps I could take to reduce the chance of me adding to the transmission of coronavirus.  

While I was never perfect at following these rules, I did my best and always tried to think about how my decisions were impacting those around me.  As I look back on the last 21 weeks I’m pleased to know that my family, friends, and clients that I interacted with on a regular basis never contracted COVID-19.  

For now, I will enjoy being back off of the road as we begin Q4 and the need to travel decreases drastically.  For those who still find themselves still traveling, I would love to hear how you have managed and continue to manage road warrior life in a pandemic.