Nurses Get Training in Israel

Five nurses from the Gaza Strip and 11 from the West Bank (Samaria) were in Israel this week for four days of medical training conducted by Israeli physicians through a collaboration between Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHR) and the Medical Simulation Center (MSR) at Sheba Medical Center.

 I could not imagine how this country would be or how it works,” Akram Abu Salah, a nurse from the Gaza Strip told Israels newspapers in a heavily-accented English. “It’s different than I thought. The people are very nice. You have Jews and Palestinian Muslims working together. It minimizes the gaps between us.”

Although collaboration between MSR and PHR began close to a decade ago, this is the first-time training has been provided to nurses. In the past, physicians and ambulance drivers have been trained. 

Participants learned new practices in the field of primary medicine, with a focus on the skills these nurses might need in emergency situations. For example, they learned best and innovative practices for stopping bleeding, intubation and chest drains. There was also one day focused on advanced cardiovascular life support. 

They trained daily from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. In the evenings, they enjoyed short social activities with their Israeli counterparts and then slept at the Maccabiah Hotel in Ramat Gan. A spokesperson for Sheba told the Post that four out of five of the Gazans had never been outside of the Strip.

The travelers said they were taken aback by Israel’s beauty and even more so by the size of Sheba and the sophisticated training available through MSR. 

Israel’s center for medical simulation was founded in 2001 to lead a nationwide effort to introduce new standards and innovative approaches to health care training and patient-safety education for the benefit of the people of Israel. A press release on the center describes a 2,400-square-meter facility designed as a virtual hospital that encompasses the whole spectrum of medical simulation modalities from role-playing actors for communication and clinical skills' training to cutting-edge, computer-driven, full-body mannequins that enable team training for challenging/high risk clinical conditions. Hopefully soon, more trainees from the Gaza strip will attend further courses should the security situation remain calm.

Unfortunately due to Hamas spending most donar money on arms and battlefield expenses, Gazas main hospital in Gaza city has many empty shelves and are void of vital medications including chemotherpy medications.