By Mrs Maha Nahal and Mr A. Abu Fanouneh, Nursing Education Department
“Critical Care Nursing” continues to be a unique and challenging sub-specialty, especially as it deals with human responses to life threatening problems. Life and death issues are always battling in the critical care environment where nurses and physicians 'defend' the patient.
Upon reviewing the current status of critical care in Palestine and after discussions with the field experts, we have developed an extensive program to improve this area. In this context, IMET2000-Pal conducted a two-day workshop to give an overall view of the care and management of the critically ill patients by introducing the concept of critical care in view of scientific and biotechnological advancements and through discussing some of the common aspects of critical care nursing and its effects on the patient, family, and staff. “Our aim is to identify future needs and collaborate with critical care nursing leaders and decision makers to develop new protocols for critical care in Palestine” said the Director of Health Sciences Education of IMET2000-Pal. The workshop which took place in the Mirador Hotel in Ramallah on December the 5th and 6th was opened by the Minister of Health, Dr Fathi Abu Moghli. Among the attendees were many local nursing leaders and international experts in nursing education. Dr Abu Moghli told the audience that critical care nursing needs improvement and support. He added “thanks for IMET2000-Pal for endless support of the health education in Palestine”.
More than seventy nurses from the critical care units from many different Palestinian hospitals participated in the workshop. Talks and presentations were delivered by experienced and highly qualified National and International speakers. Dr. John Beavis: Consultant Orthopedic Surgeon presented an interesting lecture titled “Nursing Management of Multiple Trauma: Bullet Injury. In his lecture, Dr Beavis discussed different types of war wounds in some countries, mechanisms of injury and their management. Professor Christine Norton: from King College presented another excellent lecture on “Critical Care Nursing in Britain”. Likewise, Mrs. Jo Myers: Lead nurse in one of the biggest burn units in the UK presented a lecture on “Burn Management” followed by a video show. Mrs. Abla Abu Nabaah, presented a lecture on “Orientation to e-learning in Education”. She emphasized the importance of communication technology such as e-learning to nursing and the need for a paradigm that includes tools, video conferencing and telemedicine.
The “Past & Current Situation of Critical Care Nursing in Palestine”, particularly the history of critical care nursing and resources, was outlined by Ms. Fatima Herzallah. Another aspect that was discussed in this workshop is the “Psychosocial Impact of Critical Illness on Patients, Families and their Coping Mechanisms”. This was presented by Dr. Muna Ehmaid. “Recent Emergency Research in Palestine, mainly studies conducted in Al-Massed” hospital regarding triaging of patients who arrive to the emergency room was presented by Mr. Jamal Wahadneh.
“Guidance Towards Establishing Standards of Critical Care Nursing in Palestine” was another nice talk delivered by Ms. Jameeleh Hamdan. Some light was shed on “Critical Care Nursing: Human Resources, Challenges, and Opportunities” by Mr. Osaid Rasheed. Mr Rasheed, in an excellent talk, outlined the factors influencing human resources in Palestine and future challenges. “Nursing Management of Burn in Palestine: Past, Current & Future Situations” was another presentation on the second day of the workshop in which Mr. Ayman Anayah talked about the history of burn care and management in Palestine. In addition, on talk on “Pre-Hospital Emergency Care of Burns” was presented by Mr. Azzam Nimer and another on “Hospital Based Emergency Critical Care Nursing” was presented by Mrs. Etaf Magbool.
Based on the participants’ formal evaluation, the majority rated the workshop as very good to excellent and indicated the topics delivered in the workshop were relevant to their practice. Also the majority thought that the presentations were of a high academic standard.
At the end of the workshop, and in a meeting attended by many of the decision makers in the field and the participants, it was concluded that the number of specialized nurses in critical care needs to be increased in order to meet the increasing demand for critical care nursing. In addition, there is an increasing demand for establishing critical care nursing protocols and standards of care that will inform nursing practice across the country. The workshop participants emphasized the need for organizations and charities like IMET2000-Pal who could sponsor critical care training courses and workshops for nurses locally and abroad and initiate critical care nursing care programs at Palestinian Universities at the postgraduate level. Other recommendations extended to include creating a nursing forum for critical care nursing; conducting debriefing sessions for those who are working in critical care nursing units; implementing a triage system in hospitals; and finally encouraging nursing research in Palestine.
