Branka Rimac

Croatia is a crescent-shaped country situated at the crossroads between central Europe and the Mediterranean, along the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea. When Branka Rimac completed her nursing education in Croatia in 1980, Croatia was only an administration area of Yugoslavia, a federal socialist nation governed by a strong communist party. Today, Branka is the president of the Croatian Nurses Association and Croatia is an independent republic that is no longer a part of Yugoslavia. Brankaʹs personal story of her growth as a nursing leader took place against the backdrop of her beloved countryʹs emergence as a new nation. Croatia declared independence from Yugoslavia in 1991, but that declaration was followed by 5 years of war with Yugoslavia. Americans probably best recall the war as the “Bosnian Conflict”—the war of independence involving Croatia, Serbia, and Bosnia-Herzegovina. The conflict ended in 1995 with the United Nations supervising the end of the war.