Rambam encourages its nursing staff to initiate and take part in research trials in order to develop innovative professional practices to be implemented at the medical center and beyond. The 1,900 members of Rambam’s nursing staff are aware of the importance of critical thinking and of conducting research, and the number of nurses participating in research is constantly growing.
Since research has become an important part of the organizational culture for Rambam’s nurses, they are increasingly eager to be involved in research projects during their free time. They report that research has a significant impact on their personal and professional development.
Rambam’s Nursing Staff Training and Research Development Division encourages and facilitates the nurses’ participation in a large selection of research projects. All research projects are submitted to the hospital’s Helsinki Committee for approval, to ensure the highest ethical standards. Through the Maof Program, grants of up to NIS 10,000 for two years are awarded to Rambam nurses whose projects are accepted by the competitive program. Every year, 2-3 nursing research projects receive Maof grants. In addition, the Nursing Staff Training and Research Development Division ensures that all the nurses are informed about all other relevant research grants. These include grants offered by the Israeli Chief Scientist as well as collaborations with the Technion-Rambam Initiative in Medical AI, known as TERA, University of Haifa, Yezreel Valley College, Shoham Geriatric Center and other institutions.
Every year, a Nursing Research Seminar is held at Rambam, where the various projects are presented to the community. Nurses also regularly take part in conferences in Israel and around the world on such subjects as pediatric care, neurological diseases, etc. Moreover, studies carried out by Rambam nurses are frequently published in prestigious international professional journals.
The nurses’ research projects cover a large array of subjects. One of the projects that recently received a Maof grant is studying the effect of involving caregivers in the hospital following hip surgery on geriatric patients in order to reduce incidents of delirium. Thanks to the large pool of patients available at Rambam, patient recruitment for this project and others is relatively simple.
In order to further boost cutting-edge nursing care, Rambam recently opened a unique course for leaders of innovation in nursing practices at the medical center.