Location: Nazareth, Holy Land
Director: Dr Amal Khazin
Founded:
How it all started
For over 140 years, the Nazareth Hospital, the oldest hospital in Israel,
has been preaching the Good News and healing the sick in the name of Jesus.
Known locally as the ‘Scottish Hospital’, or the ‘Hospital on the Hill’, it
was founded in 1861 and is owned and operated by the EMMS (Edinburgh Medical
Missionary Society) Nazareth, with support from people and organisations
around the world. From its beginnings as a small clinic, it has grown into
a full district general hospital, recognised by the Israeli authorities and
serving the city of Nazareth and the surrounding area of Galilee, a
population of approximately 150,000.
The Hospital has 135 beds, a wide range of departments, including a Palliative Care and a Hospice ward, and almost 400 members of staff. It sees and treats more than 80,000 patients each year, and over 2,500 babies are delivered in the Maternity Department.
The Hospital has three part-time chaplains, and its chapel has a central supporting pillar in the shape of a cross and a carpenter’s bench as the communion table – both reminders of Jesus and his life in Nazareth.
Current activities
From its early years, the Hospital emphasised the importance of training
local people as part of its medical missionary policy. Nursing training
began at the Hospital in 1924 and was formally recognised within Israel by
1960. As such, it is the oldest School of Nursing within Israel. By 1986,
the courses were upgraded to that of Registered Nurse and they are hoping to
offer a BA Degree in the near future, which will be accredited by the
Israeli Ministry of Health.
The School of Nursing is unique as it is the only Arab nursing school in Israel, but not the only school of nursing available for Arab students. Entry to the School is open to all, both male and female, without any racial, ethnic or religious constraints or prejudice and Christian, Muslim and Jew learn alongside each other. Classes are given in English, Hebrew and Arabic! Most of the students are Muslim, but it is stressed that students are training in a Christian Hospital, and Ethics, for example, are taught from a Christian standpoint.
Students are trained to become registered nurses. Each class consists of approximately 55 young men and women who see nursing as a promising career and a way to contribute to their communities, in fact a third of students are male, because as Arabs, they find nursing a job that may offer them a decent job after graduation.
The demand for nurses in Israel and the Occupied Territories has increased over the past few years and the number of student nurses has doubled. Consequently, the School’s facilities and resources became overcrowded and inadequate, especially as the students had to move out of the Hospital building into temporary accommodation, to allow the Hospital to meet the need for more wards and operating theatres. Therefore, in part sponsored by BibleLands, the School built new premises to continue and expand its work. This new School of Nursing was completed in September 2005, and is equipped with the latest hi-tech training facilities, including a lecture auditorium, six lecture rooms, laboratories and a medical library. This new facility means that the School can now teach 200 students each year.
After training, nurses serve in the Nazareth Hospital and in hospitals and medical centres throughout the country. Hundreds of excellent nurses now serve the Hospital and the area – it is said that there is hardly a village in Galilee that does not have a Nazareth-trained nurse. Many of these nurses are employed in primary health care programmes in the local community – an increasingly vital area of medical work, as travel restrictions and current difficulties mean that many sick people are unable to reach hospitals.
The Nazareth School of Nursing, while led and managed by Christians, acts as a beacon of healing and hope to all, regardless of faith or nationality. More than 145 years since its inception, the Hospital is still adapting to the needs of the community it serves, in a spirit of loving care and reconciliation.
