Years of conflict have created a humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Millions of people are trapped without access to basic human needs. Shifa Hospital is the largest hospital in the Gaza Strip. Despite being only an hour away from Tel-Aviv, where hospitals provide cutting edge healthcare services, Shifa hospital suffers from an extreme lack of resources, which prevents it from providing even basic medical care. This is not a political issue, it’s a human rights issue. Doctors and nurses put their lives at risk every day due to unsafe working conditions and inadequate supplies. 

I spent 2 weeks in November at Shifa Hospital working in the Emergency Department and teaching ICU and ED nurses Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support. In the few days I was there, I witnessed multiple traumas, cardiac and respiratory arrests. The nurses I taught and worked alongside are extremely smart and experienced in emergency management, but what they lack (besides basic equipment) is sustainable access to updates in recommended practice guidelines.

Many nurses at Shifa have taken BLS and ACLS classes before, however they are unable to keep their certification updated because there is no certified instructor anywhere in Gaza.

My goal is to raise enough money to train the nurse educator at Shifa Hospital to become the first and only certified BLS and ACLS instructor in Gaza. Help me create a standard of practice for these amazing nurses who do so much with so little, to improve their patient outcomes.