Qatar nursing student travels to Calgary campus to graduate with friends

A couple of times each year, up to 12 lucky fourth-year students from the University of Calgary’s Faculty of Nursing travel more than 11,000 kilometres to Doha, capital city of the State of Qatar, to complete their final clinical practicum.

The goal is to experience nursing in a completely different clinical environment and to gain some understanding of health care in another culture; the bonus is the forging of lifelong friendships like that of Mia Torres, Catherine Godzwon and University of Calgary in Qatar student Stephany Tapa. Today, the three graduate together in Calgary on Thursday with their Bachelor of Nursing degrees.

“I never thought that Stephany and I would actually be together again after just seven months of being apart, and that we get the privilege of graduating together,” says Torres, who journeyed to Qatar in October 2014 with fellow Calgary student Godzwon. Godzwon and Tapa completed their practicums in labour and delivery at Women’s Hospital and Al Ahli Hospital respectively while Torres was in accidents and emergency/cardiovascular emergency at Hamad General Hospital and The Heart Hospital.

Read the full story in the June 11, 2015 edition of UToday.