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Not many people can say complete strangers recognize their voice. But when a man came up to Pnina Sharon while she was shopping in downtown Jerusalem and insisted he knew her voice from somewhere, she immediately responded: "You underwent open heart surgery?"
"As a nurse in the department of cardiothoracic surgery at Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem, I must have reassured him before surgery and he remembered my voice. It was very moving," she recalled.
Sharon carried the same dedication to patient care and patient experience to her other roles at Hadassah hospitals. As head nurse of the Medical Intensive Care Unit, she took part in airborne care for patients worldwide and later as head nurse of the Emergency Department at Hadassah Ein Kerem, she embarked upon a venture she still holds dear. "I gathered clothes and established a 'boutique shop' for patients who didn't own clothing with which to leave the ER. So, they wouldn't leave in pajamas, we would give them clothing along with the respect they deserved. To this day, I organize the items there."
Now, with 40 years of experience, Sharon is director of the Internal Medicine, Emergency Department and Emergency Preparedness Division at Hadassah Ein Kerem and recently received the Nancy Falchuk Outstanding Nursing Award, donated by past Hadassah National President Nancy Falchuk.
"I tell the nurses: Be good to the patients. In the end, we are here for them."
A born-and-raised Jerusalemite, Sharon knew she wanted to be a nurse from the age of 17. "This is my identity, and that is how I'm perceived by my family and friends too. If help is needed, I will do it wholeheartedly."
She studied nursing at the Henrietta Szold Hadassah-Hebrew University School of Nursing and spent most of her career at the Hadassah Medical Organization, apart from a brief period in which she worked as a nurse in Kibbutz Gesher in northern Israel. The kibbutz practice informed her subsequent work at Hadassah hospitals. "It taught me independence — the ability to make my own decisions and stand by them."
"While in my current role, I'm further away from the 'field;' I have an impact on meaningful processes," she explained, such as the onboarding of staff, choosing and accompanying managers and implementing procedures. "If your choices are correct and you learn to position the right people in the right places, your path is easier and smoother."
"I'm grateful to have received the Nancy Falchuk Outstanding Nursing Award that honors and recognizes professionalism," she said.
The mother of three and grandmother of seven is an inveterate runner. A few years ago, she ran the Berlin Marathon and has since run numerous races across Israel.
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