After fleeing war in Ukraine, physician starts new chapter as U of T nursing student

When Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Lily Tretiak, a physician in Kyiv, and her husband took only 20 minutes to make a life-altering choice: to leave the country with their two young children.

After travelling through Hungary and spending nine months in Italy with Tretiak’s godmother, the family eventually arrived in Canada via the Canada-Ukraine Authorization for Emergency Travel (CUAET) program.

This September, Tretiak begins a new chapter at the University of Toronto as a first-year student in the accelerated, two-year bachelor of science in nursing (BScN) program at the Lawrence Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing.

She says she sees nursing as an opportunity to engage more deeply with patients through communication and empathy. “I feel that I can be a better nurse than a physician,” says Tretiak, who currently works in a retirement home for Ukrainian-speaking older adults.

When Tretiak first arrived in Canada in December 2022, she looked into obtaining a license to practice medicine, but the complexity of the process and volume of paperwork led her to reassess her priorities.

“I had lost a lot of people already – including many of my friends – and I no longer connected my happiness to my professional goals. It felt impossible to go back to that kind of a life and I didn’t want to sacrifice my time with my family.”

A colleague at her workplace introduced her to resources for internationally educated medical graduates, and nursing soon emerged as both a viable and fulfilling pathway to remain in the health-care profession.  

Tretiak says she was drawn to the range of opportunities available to nurses in the profession, noting that many U of T nursing graduates go on to become clinical managers or leaders in health policy. 

“There was no other choice for me. I only applied to U of T and I am so happy I received an offer,” she says. “I saw that nurses could also be in leadership positions, and maybe that will be a part of my journey in the future – but for now, I am also happy to continue working with older adults and see where my path in nursing takes me.”

As a mother of two young children, Tretiak is preparing to balance the demands of the accelerated BScN program with family life. She is grateful for the support of her parents, who have joined her in Canada, and is confident in her decision to return to school.

“You don’t know what will happen in a year or even in a few months from now; having lived through leaving your home and starting over, it makes you more decisive,” says Tretiak.

This isn’t the first time Tretiak’s life has been upended by war. Originally from the Donetsk region of Ukraine, she moved to Kyiv after that area was occupied by Russia in 2014 – leaving behind a place that held many peaceful and happy memories, including her time as a medical student at Donetsk National Medical University.

Making difficult decisions has thus become a part of Tretiak’s reality. “My experiences with war and having to leave my home twice and start over have changed me," she says, "but I am looking forward to studying again and being a part of the Bloomberg Nursing community."

Tretiak is especially looking forward to her clinical placements and is eager to apply her existing healthcare knowledge while learning new approaches and procedures.

Asked how she maintains a positive perspective on life after going through numerous hardships, Tretiak paraphrases a saying from the 18th century German philosopher Immanuel Kant: “After it rains, some see only mud in a puddle, others see the stars.”

“Your point of view is how you generate positivity, and that is what I try to do in every aspect of my life,” Tretiak says.