Thursday, June 26, 2008
by: Christine Yzaguirre, M.A. '06

Every morning, Catherine Kazmin '92, M.S., NP-C, opens her office at 8 a.m. She spends the day caring for patients with a variety of ailments, then devotes her evening to teaching about health care and doing administrative work. She lives as many health practitioners do, with one notable exception. Her home these days is Baghdad, Iraq, and her office is the United States Embassy.

Kazmin is a Foreign Service Health Practitioner (FSHP) in the joint medical unit of the embassy. A member of a medical unit staff consisting of one Regional Medical Officer (RMO), two FSHPs, one Military M.D. and five medics, she cares primarily for embassy employees and their families. But Iraq wasn't the first stop on the globe for this accomplished nurse. After earning her B.S.N. from Seton Hall University in 1992 and her M.S. in Nursing from Rutgers University in 1995, Kazmin worked in primary care, and subsequently open heart surgery, for four years.

One day, as she perused a nurse practitioner magazine, she came across an ad for the Foreign Service that prompted her to “See the World.” “It made me realize how much I always wanted to travel and try to make a difference on a more global scale,” she says. Kazmin joined the Foreign Service in 1999. Her first assignment was Liberia, where she spent five months caring for embassy employees as well as Liberian natives. Since then, she has served as FSHP/Medical Attaché in such countries as Eritrea, Mexico, and Turkmenistan. The intense travel schedule may have been overwhelming for some, but Kazmin embraces the experience. “I love foreign cultures and meeting new people,” says Kazmin. She adds that due to the poor medical care of some countries, many patients seek out FSHPs like herself because of their strong medical backgrounds. “Not only am I looking to build relationships with them, but often they want to do the same with me. I'm fortunate to be making friends all over the world,” she says.

In the summer of 2007, Kazmin was given the opportunity to spend one year in Iraq--an opportunity she could not pass up. She recalls, “With everything that was going on in the world, I knew this was a chance for me to witness history firsthand. I wanted to experience the people and the environment for myself and not rely solely on what I was seeing and hearing on television and in the newspapers.” In the few months she has spent in Baghdad, Kazmin believes she is already seeing a positive change in the people and their overall morale. “When I first arrived, the Iraqis I encountered were in pretty low spirits,” she remembers. “There was a lot of sadness and anger. It was a little scary.”

And now? “Things are a lot better,” she reports. “Morale is a lot higher, and the violence has definitely decreased.” Kazmin will conclude her time in Iraq on August 21, 2008. Wherever her practice takes her next, she hopes to continue to make a difference in the lives of others. “Despite the hardships--having to adapt to different lifestyles and the long hours away from home--my job truly is rewarding. Our patients and their families love that we're always available not just to treat them, but to build friendships with them and provide them with the emotional support they may not get otherwise,” she says. “It's a whole other level of health care that I'm blessed to be a part of.” 

For more information please contact:
Christine Yzaguirre
(973) 378-9840
yzaguich@shu.edu