Nazareth Project continues to identify opportunities for exchange visits among US and Nazareth Hospital healthcare professionals through the Senior Medical Advisor Program.
The Nazareth Hospital would welcome a Senior Medical Advisor in the areas of Cardiology, Nephrology, Psychiatry and Orthoperiodic Surgery.
Through the Senior Medical Advisor Program, NPI has recruited specialists who bring important expertise to assist the Nazareth Hospital in its development goals, such as accreditation with the Joint Commission International (JCI), the addition of Cardiac Catheterization services and further development as a teaching hospital.
Past Senior Medical Advisor program participants include:
- April, 2013: Dr. Mark Lacy, of Arizona, was the first such Advisor. He gave several presentations on medical ethics and patient safety, met with infection control personnel to discuss elements of the hospital’s goal to gain accreditation with JCI and held informal case conferences with medical students.
- June, 2013: Dr. Elias Haddad, a cardiologist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, consulted with the Nazareth Hospital’s project team on the new Cardiac Catheterization Unit. He committed to return and assist with staff training after the lab was operational.
- March, 2014: Dr. Dan Ostergaard, MD, FAAFP, a nationally-renowned expert in the field of Family Medicine with extensive international experience, consulted with the Nazareth Hospital on starting its own Family Medicine Residency program. As part of a feasibility study, Dr. Ostergaard joined hospital leadership, Dr. Bishara Bisharat and Dr. Suzy Srouji, to meet with Israeli and Palestinian health officials and deans of medical schools both in the West Bank and Israel. In his report, Dr. Ostergaard wrote: “Family medicine residents will invigorate and challenge the teaching physicians and others on the professional staff. Over time, the patients and their families will appreciate that the care provided by these new family physicians incorporates the bio-psycho-social and holistic approach to patient care that can reduce the fragmentation of care.”
- November, 2015: NPI invited Dr. Curt Thompson, a psychiatrist in private practice in Falls Church, VA. Founder of Being Known, Dr. Thompson helps people explore the connection between interpersonal neurobiology and Christian spirituality. Those who attended his workshops attested to Dr. Thompson’s “unique ability to transcend the divisions of religion (Christian and Muslim in particular), disciplines (medical and psycho-spiritual) and age (the information he shared had equal appeal to students and seasoned veterans)”. He left “a rich deposit in the lives of many of the people he interacted with and through his books he continues to inspire others to engage in the discipline of attentiveness, the practice of gratitude and reflexive praxis, with the purpose of bringing about transformation in interpersonal and community relationships”.
NPI has sponsored Nazareth healthcare professionals for continuing education courses. Five such guests have studied at the Summer Peacebuilding Institute (Center for Conflict Transformation, Harrisonburg, VA).
NPI has also funded the publication of education tools. Written by Dr. Amal Khazin, Director of Nazareth School of Nursing, two books on parenting are currently part of the school’s outreach to families.
