ARIEL, OCTOBERÂ 2013 – According to statistics provided by OECD, Israel has only 4.8 nurses per 1000 people compared with an average of 8.8 nurses in OECD countries. Israel requires an additional 36,000 nurses to fill the gap. The shortage of nurses can be felt in hospitals, emergency rooms, children’s clinics, schools, and other institutions.
The demand for registered nurses in Israel has prompted Ariel University in Samaria to open a Department of Nursing which will offer a Bachelors of Science in Nursing (BSN) under the School for Health Sciences. It is the first department created since the academic institution was granted university status earlier this year.
The nursing profession ranks as the second most in-demand profession in the developing world. Nurses play a critical role in providing health care and require a broad set of knowledge and skills to make important health-related decisions and to communicate effectively and sensitively with patients. In addition, nurses provide crucial counsel in preventative medicine and healthy lifestyle management so that the quality of life of patients is overall improved.
The four-year program towards a BSN is designed to train registered nurses. Nursing students will be exposed to a wide range of disciplines, including physiotherapy, nutrition, molecular biology, physics (including medical physics), behavioral sciences, psychology, social work, industrial engineering, robotics, and more.
With its focus on research, Ariel University’s world-class science labs will be at the disposal of nursing students, enabling them to enrich their studies with cutting-edge research that goes beyond formal studies in the field. Some of the best clinicians and researchers in the field of nursing in Israel have been added to the School for Health Sciences to serve this new department.