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For the next two weeks, BWH welcomes seven Israeli nurses and seven Palestinian nurses as they observe clinical emergency care, receive trauma-nursing training and participate in STRATUS simulations as they explore the rich spectrum of patient care at BWH.
Through its Institute for International Emergency Medicine and Health (IEMH) in the Department of Emergency Medicine, BWH is playing a role in this landmark Peace through Health program which has helped build bridges between traditional adversaries who now work shoulder to shoulder to train ED nurses and doctors caring for all patients regardless of race or religion.
This visit, in the planning for more than three years, is one part of an unprecedented Jewish-Arab cooperative effort to bring the best and most advanced health care to the battle-scarred holy city of Jerusalem and throughout the region. This initiative is funded by the United States Department of State to improve health and relations between the communities in conflict. BWH is helping to train the medical personnel providing care as Hadassah Medical Organization and Augusta Victoria Hospital are working together in making significant strides in the delivery of emergency care.
Mark Davis, MD, MS, director of BWH's IEMH and founder of the Peace Through Health program, said, “Leaders from both sides came together with a remarkable spirit of cooperation to create this balanced program of medical development and partnership for peace on the front lines.”
In addition to hosting 14 nurses for two weeks beginning Monday, BWH welcomes Jacob Assaf, MD, chief of Emergency Medicine at Hadassah Ein Kerem, and Tawfiq Nasser, CEO of Augusta Victoria Hospital.
The fourteen visiting nurses have a full two weeks of clinical observations, classroom instruction and site visits, including a trip to Concord to get a first-hand look at Boston MedFlight. “We plan to demonstrate our best practices in trauma care and triage,” said William Briggs, RN, nurse manager, Emergency Department.
BWH experts are set to provide the visiting nurses with instruction in the internationally-accepted Trauma Nursing Core Course which teaches emergency nursing as a standardized system of patient care from initial trauma in the field through emergency department resuscitation and stabilization. The BWH program also includes a “train the trainer” component so these Palestinian and Israeli nurses can return to Augusta Victoria Hospital and the new ED at Hadassah Ein Kerem and share their newly acquired knowledge and skills with their colleagues.
President Gary Gottlieb said the BWH community is proud to welcome this nursing contingent as part of the program. “We're thrilled and humbled to play a role in this historic Jewish-Arab partnership, and truly honored to help these dedicated care providers reach their ambitious goals,” he said.