Training and Teaching

Training local Doctors and Nurses is a primary objective of the St John Eye Hospital Group.  In training local people, we are investing in the region and helping to build capacity and to rebuild the fractured local infrastructure.

That is why the Jerusalem Hospital operates a four-year Medical Residency Training Programme that is recognised by the Palestinian and Jordanian Boards of Ophthalmology.  The first two years of the programme are also recognised by the British Royal College of Ophthalmologists.

As part of our Residency Programme, we operate a Joint Teaching Programme with the world-renowned Hadassah Medical Centre in Israeli West Jerusalem.  This project allows our Palestinian doctors to become licensed in both Israel and Palestine and to gain training in cutting edge methods they could not otherwise have received. The Hospital Group began funding this project from its own resources in 2004.

In 2005, the Hadassah Centre was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in acknowledgment of its equal treatment of all patients, regardless of ethnic and religious differences.  We hope that – in some small way – our Teaching Programme with Hadassah helps bring Palestinian and Israeli together.   

Nurse training, too, is vitally important. The Sir Stephen Miller School of Nursing at the Jerusalem Hospital operates a one year Specialist Ophthalmic Nursing Course, which is accredited by Thames Valley University in London.  This Course is unique in the region and, since 1998, has produced 93 graduate nurses, 43 of whom are currently working for the Hospital Group.