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Hadassah's nurses and health professionals are known for "going above and beyond," noted Dr. Rely Alon, director of the Division of Nursing & Health Professions at the Hadassah Medical Organization (HMO). “These are the words that create a reality. This is how you create a team of excellence."
A trained nurse midwife, with a PhD in gender studies from Bar-Ilan University, Dr. Alon is the director of 2,500 nurses and 500 professionals in physiotherapy, social work, psychology, physical therapy, speech therapy and dietetics.
"The nurses are the spine of the hospital. Patients may come because of the doctors, but they stay because of the nurses. The nurse’s interaction with the patient can influence the patient's whole experience at the hospital,” she said.
Dr. Alon’s mission is to create a team of excellence not only in patient care but also in research and leadership. She founded the Center for Leadership at Hadassah, created a Center for Research and Innovation for Nurses and Health Professions, and opened a Leadership Course in the Health Professions.
At HMO, a patient is cared for by a multi-professional team, and Dr. Alon works to create smooth interaction through joint workshops, seminars and roundtable discussions. Each team needs tailor-made leadership.
"We look at Hadassah hospitals as a place from which you can grow, break glass ceilings,think outside the box,” she affirmed. "As Henrietta Szold, the founder of Hadassah, theWomen’s Zionist Organization of America, advised, 'dream big.'"
Dr. Alon recently took part in the Shaughnessy Coldiron Senior Nurse Executive Fellowship Program for nursing leadership in Ohio. The program aims to strengthen and advance the professional growth of senior nurses. As the only Israeli in her program, she met senior nurses from the US, Italy and the Philippines. She and her colleagues discussed how they could solve mutual challenges in their day-to-day work as well as how to respond to emergency events. For example, when a senior nurse presented the dilemmas that had ensued from the California wildfires, Dr. Alon shared her vast experience in managing crises.
Dr. Alon also lectured on leadership in Israel and HMO’s critical role in the war. "We have a lot of experience in handling mass-casualty events, and we know how to reach out to others, and share our successes," Dr. Alon explained. Israel’s two years of war presented challenges, such as managing a staff shortage while nurses served in reserves, and bridging the gap between families and soldiers who didn’t want to tell their parents they had been wounded.
Said Dr. Alon: "I'm very connected to the soldiers. When a helicopter lands at Hadassah Medical Organization, I'm there. In one instance, I became particularly attached to a lone soldier from New Jersey who was gravely wounded. He was unconscious for nearly two months. I would visit him every day and shout ‘Itzik wake up!’ I was so involved that everyone called him ‘Rely's Itzik.’ And when he recently married the love of his life, I was extremely moved."
