Objective: To describe the learning impacts made by graduate nurse volunteers who worked in a field hospital 1 month following the 2014 Ludian earthquake in Yunnan, China.Methods: A qualitative descriptive approach was adopted. The volunteers were 23 final year part-time students enrolled in the Master of Science in Disaster Nursing program offered by the School of Nursing. Data were collected by focus group interviews and analyzed by qualitative content analysis.Findings: Reflecting from their experience, three themes emerged. The first theme was "when the going gets tough, the tough gets going," suggesting that every suffering should be regarded as a gift that would nourish human lives rather than being denied. The second theme was "we recognize our ignorance only through learning," helped moving the volunteers' learning to a higher level. The third theme was "change is the reality, collaboration is the strategy," highlighting the need to be pragmatic and work harmoniously as a team.Conclusions: Life-changing impacts were gained by these graduate nursing student volunteers who were placed in a field hospital following an earthquake. Experiential learning opportunities can be given to public health nursing students whenever possible to maximize their students' learning and help them to be adequately prepared and be ready to respond to global disaster challenges.