Nursing Times

Three of our dedicated staff tell us their own tales…

Nader Ibrahim Hajjaj

Nader Ibrahim Hajjaj is a Licensed Practical Nurse at our Hospital in Hebron.  Nader is one of the few nurses we employ who did not come up through our own training facilities.  Before coming to work with us in 1992, he was at the Al Hada Hospital in Saudi Arabia and then the Bethlehem Government Hospital. 

Since then, Nader has worked in many of the different Hospital departments.  He was in the out-patients clinic in Jerusalem for four years and the operating theatre there for another.  He then worked on the in-patients ward for six years and Outreach for three years, before starting at Hebron in 2005.  . 

Nader says that he has felt privileged to be able to serve his people in the OPT in this way.  This is especially the case since he came to Hebron in the West Bank, “For various reasons, many patients in need of treatment are refused the necessary permits to travel to Jerusalem.  This results in many eye conditions not being treated.  But now – with the opening of the Anabta and Hebron centres – the mission of St. John is preserved and it continues to serve the people of Palestine regardless of their religion, gender, ability to pay – or place of residence!”

For Nader, the Hospital Group is a particular source of pride in his life as it stood by him at time when his health let him down.  In 2001, he suffered severe back pain and a prolapsed disc, which resulted in his having to undergo emergency surgery.  He says that the Hospital administration stood by him, “emotionally, financially and socially.  It covered the expenses of the surgery and staff visited me in my village.  This is what made me feel as important to the Hospital as the Hospital is to me.”

Nader hopes that staff throughout the Group continue to feel like family members and that they can continue to serve their people by providing a high standard of ophthalmic care.  He would like to express his feeling of gratitude to the Hospital Group, which has enabled him to gain a broad range of knowledge and professional development, “I joined the Hospital in 1992 as a general LPN and then I took the ophthalmic nursing course by which I started my career as an ophthalmic nurse. I've had the chance to be trained to check visual acuity checking in children… and since I moved to the Hebron centre, I’ve had the chance to train in so many different ophthalmic skills…”

Nasrallah Khalilieh

Nasrallah Khalilieh, Charge Nurse at Jerusalem and Co-ordinator of our Outreach Clinics, first came to St. John as a child with his grandfather, who was undergoing eye surgery.   He remembers the crowds and the noise in the Hospital even then.  Many years later, his childhood memory accompanies him through the noisy, crowded corridors and waiting rooms of the Hospital today. 

Nasrallah enrolled on the Ophthalmic Nursing Course .n November 1999 after achieving a Diploma in Community Health.  He completed the course successfully, was awarded the School of Nursing HallendorffCup and was immediately employed at the Hospital as a junior charge nurse.

Then in 2001, by continuing to work hard at the training offered by St John, Nasrallah fulfilled all of the requirements to become a Nurse Practitioner.  In 2003 he was appointed as Outreach Coordinator, and is now responsible for planning and leading regular clinics and visits to remote and isolated villages throughout the West Bank.  

According to Nasrallah, “Nursing in the OPT has greatly developed in both training and practice, especially ophthalmic nursing.  I sincerely believe that it has reached a similar level to that of Europe and developed countries.  I feel obliged to express my pride in this Hospital.  Through the work I do on Outreach I meet many people who make our trials to get to them worth while.”

Nasrallah’s life continues to be linked inextricably to the Hospital as he first met his wife Maha while doing his training there. 

Ghazi El Baba

Ghazi El Baba is an Ophthalmic Nurse at the St. John Eye Clinic in Gaza.  Ghazi was trained as a nurse at our Jerusalem Hospital and has been working for us since qualifying in 1980. 

One of the many stories that Ghazi is particularly fond of remembering concerns an incident that occurred while he was working on the Jerusalem Children’s Ward in 1990.  A woman had came in with her son, who duly underwent surgery.  Ghazi was then teaching her how to administer the necessary eye-drops for her child but noticed that she didn’t seem to see very well herself.  When Ghazi asked if this was, indeed, the case, the woman denied it point blank.

The pair were interrupted as Ghazi was called to tend to a nearby patient, and, from this distance, Ghazi asked the woman if she could tell him what he was holding in his hand.  She could not.  Realising that she had been discovered, the woman explained that she had never said anything because she was embarrassed – a not uncommon situation in the OPT, where eye disease is stigmatized.  The woman was then examined and underwent the surgery that enabled her to regain her vision.  This incident has stayed with Ghazi as an example of how nursing can reach out to people. 

Now working in Gaza, Ghazi is hoping to be an even better nurse and to take further qualifications so that he can help his besieged people and make them understand the importance of taking care of their eyes.  He says that, “By teaching people we could decrease the number of congenital eye diseases, making people aware of their conditions and the possibility of passing it to their children.  Inform them how to deal with emergencies related to eye injury, to minimize the damage done to the eye until they are able to seek medical help”. 

On behalf of all of the staff in Gaza and elsewhere, Ghazi would like to express his gratitude to all of the sponsors.  He says that, though he knows their good work is reflected in the statistics, it is really palpable in the sight of our grateful patients.