Karine Godbout arrived in Léogâne, Haiti two months after a catastrophic earthquake devastated the city, and much of the country, in January, 2010. What Godbout saw and did there will remain with her forever.

Godbout, who will graduate with her master’s degree from the Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing in April 2012, worked in Haiti for three months as part of a Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) team. Put in charge of an in-patient tent hospital in Léogâne, Godbout oversaw the treatment of patients suffering from a range of life threatening injuries, diseases and, in the case of children, malnourishment. Caring for patients without the proper medicines and diagnostic equipment we take for granted in Canada “forced me to think outside the box,” recalls Godbout.

Haiti was not the first time Godbout was prompted to reflect upon the disparity between the Canadian medical system and those of less advantaged countries. Attending a medical conference in Morocco in 2009, she was troubled by how limited hospital care was for the majority of Moroccans. Godbout hopes to narrow this gap by organizing partnerships between nurses in Canada and nurses in developing nations.

She also hopes for another mission with MSF. For the immediate future, however, Godbout’s post-graduation goal is to work in a hospital in Montreal or Victoria. A Québec native, she has worked as a registered nurse with transplant patients, burn patients and cancer patients. She has also worked with Inuit communities in northern Québec.

Remarkably, she has also found time to volunteer with “On the Tip of the Toes Foundation,” organizing therapeutic adventure expeditions for teenagers living with cancer. “It’s really inspiring,” she says. “If they can climb a mountain or paddle down a river for 10 days, maybe they can beat cancer too.”

She has accomplished a lifetime’s worth of good deeds in the past three years. At just thirty years old, however, this is only the beginning for Godbout. In the years to come, she will continue to care for those in need and help to train others to do the same.