For as long as he can remember, Robera Berhanu was attracted to healthcare facilities. “Even as a young boy, I liked the idea of becoming a nurse to help address health issues in my country,” explains Berhanu. He could not have imagined that his enthusiasm for nursing would take him from his native Ethiopia to Montreal or that he would be the first PhD student in the history of the Ingram School of Nursing (ISoN) to win the prestigious Tomlinson Award.
Offered by McGill’s Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies, this three-year internal fellowship award is designed to recruit outstanding students into doctoral degree programs. It was established in 2000 through a very generous gift from Dr. Richard H. Tomlinson.
Berhanu is grateful to ISoN PhD Program Director Sonia Semenic, who suggested he apply for the fellowship, and to his supervisor, Kalonde Malama, for their invaluable guidance throughout the application process. “Winning the Tomlinson Award definitely eases the financial burden of pursuing doctoral studies,” says Berhanu.
With his sights on a career in health care, Berhanu completed his BSc in Nursing at Madda Walabu University in 2016. As a nurse working in both adult and pediatric wards at a general hospital, he treated many patients with communicable diseases such as HIV. While he enjoyed solving problems and being part of a resourceful healthcare team, he was troubled by the societal stigmatization and marginalization of HIV patients. Recognizing that research is key to improving healthcare processes and outcomes, Berhanu decided to pursue his master’s degree in Adult Health Nursing. He spent the next few years working as a faculty lecturer, designing and teaching courses for nursing and other health science students at the university as well as clinical sites, advising students, designing community service projects, conducting research and publishing articles in peer-reviewed journals.
His growing interest in research coupled with his passion for studying HIV and other communicable diseases motivated him to pursue doctoral studies. He is thrilled to have landed at the Ingram School of Nursing’s PhD program and excited by the prospect of being mentored by Prof. Malama. “McGill is known for being a research-intensive university with strong students and top-notch researchers,” he says. His PhD research will focus on post-migration HIV acquisition among African, Caribbean, and Black people in Canada.
