Robert Wright is used to being on the front lines.

Working as an ER tech and phlebotomist has prepared him for just about anything that can happen to the human body.

Nothing, though, has quite prepared him for the COVID-19 pandemic sweeping the nation and the world.

"You always kind of plan for something like this," said Wright, who played baseball for Northwest Nazarene from 2003-05. "You always have in the back of your mind the worst that can happen, but nothing can really prepare you for what can really go on."

Wright, who graduated from NNU in 2005 with a communications degree and then went back in 2010 to get his pre-requisites for PA school, works for two hospitals in Long Beach, Calif.

His wife, Haley (Hevern), also is on the front lines of the pandemic. She graduated in 2011 from NNU with a psychology degree after playing volleyball and softball.

She is a program manager for a mental health outpatient clinic, serving people who have a major clinical health diagnosis.

"It's been really hard," she said. "Our members that we serve are really resilient. I'm not sure if it's because they are used to things being chaotic or not. Our staff is having a hard time because there are a lot of unknowns – when will it end and how to navigate their jobs. I'm really proud of them.

"I don't know that you can prepare for something like this, but I think a lot of the education I got (at NNU) was a stepping stone to get to where I am now, in a place to help other people."

While Long Beach has so far been spared from the worst of the outbreak, Rob and his co-workers expect the virus eventually to head their way.

"It's eerie right now," he said. "We aren't getting bombarded, but we are seeing more patients and every patient that comes in with a fever, a cough, respiratory or chest tightness – it is automatically assumed they have COVID."

Once the patient is presumed to have COVID, workers have to put on gowns, booties, gloves and masks. Then they go through a triage in the parking lot, where one of his hospitals has four army bunkers set up in the parking lot with 90 beds. Rob and the other medical staff will be intubating patients outside and they won't even go into the hospital.

"It's rewarding, but it's tough," Wright said of his vocation. "As a person, you grow because you get to see so many different aspects of life and death."

Both Rob and Haley credit their athletic backgrounds with helping prepare them for what they are facing today.

"Thriving in an athletic environment and being a leader and a competitor is similar to the medical field," Rob said. "With the medical field, you don't know the underlying cause of why they are feeling like this, so you are competing – not against each other, but against time."

Haley agreed, saying, "On a team you have to figure out how to manage a lot of different emotions and a lot of different things at the same time. Playing sports in general, you have to learn to work together with people to get to a common goal."

After graduating in 2005, Rob managed a business in Idaho, but during the economic downturn in 2008 he decided he wanted to pursue a career with more stability.

"I needed something stable that is never going to be jeopardized," he said. "My first thought was the medical field. We will always need them. The education (at NNU) is top notch."

The couple moved to California in 2012, had two children and now are helping their communities deal with a pandemic.