Nurse practitioner Zahra Roble was searching for a way to better care for her patients and found the answer at the Duke University School of Nursing.

Roble, who resides in Minnesota and cares for patients with diabetes, thyroid diseases, hypertension and related conditions, earned her Endocrinology certificate earlier this spring.

“All the faculty were very kind and very good,” she said. “I was very satisfied with the program and the knowledge that I gained.”

Roble began the program in January 2020. When the pandemic hit, it complicated finding a location in Minnesota for her clinicals, so Roble ended up coming to Durham to complete them at the Duke Endocrinology Clinic.

“All the providers, the nurses, even the front desk in the morning, they say, ‘Good morning, how are you? Do you need anything?’” she said. “I recommended for everybody to go there.”

Roble currently works for a community nonprofit, primary care clinic.

Originally from Somalia, she has lived in the U.S. since 1994. She started high school in Des Moines, Iowa, before moving to Minnesota to earn her diploma. Around this time, she met her husband and began her family. Roble has four children.

When Roble was ready to start college, she wanted to pursue a path towards becoming a midwife.

“I was new to the country and didn't know any other program, so I said, ‘Midwife, I like to be midwife because my aunt was a midwife,’” she said.

When Roble enrolled at Saint Paul College, she found that they didn’t offer a midwifery program but did offer a nursing program. She was advised to start with her nursing degree and then could become a midwife later if she wished.

Roble gained her practical nursing diploma from the Saint Paul community and technical college before earning her associate’s, bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral nursing degrees from St. Catherine University.

“I like to take care of people. I’m glad in the nursing field,” she said. “(The faculty and staff at Duke School of Nursing) have a place in my heart. I appreciate what they did for me.”