The Israel Defense Forces' Medical Corps is in the midst of a pilot program that places female and male nurses in combat battalions, as part a series of changes designed to improve the military's medical services.
IDF head nurse Lt. Col. Oshrat Gozlan told JNS in an interview that some 200 nurses currently serve in the military, but that unlike in the past, a growing number of them are stationed in the field, alongside combat soldiers.
"In the past, you saw them mainly away from the front, in first aid clinics or in the unit that accompanies hospitalized soldiers. Now, there is a trend involving growing numbers of nurses who are bolstering the medical chain in the field," Gozlan said.
The pilot program was launched in 2018, with the aim of making nurses more available to combat soldiers, she explained.
"In the IDF, we have doctors and medics, but where is the nurse component? Now, they are serving alongside doctors, much like in civilian health care systems all over the world. In the past, we got used to having doctors and medics in the military, but nurses have very broad medical knowledge."
In addition to their unique know-how, nurses bring with them the essential quality of empathy, a desire to listen, a willingness to address the distress of patients – qualities that make their presence a medical-force multiplier in combat units.
"We wanted to bring this heart to the battalions," said Gozlan. "In the IDF, the nurses also have greater authority to provide treatment than their civilian counterparts."
The end result, she said, is a "very significant improvement in the medical service within the battalion framework, which did not previously exist."
In the coming years, all IDF field battalions will have their own attached nurses.
Soldiers who feel unwell will find nurses waiting at their bases, even if doctors are away dealing with other incidents. The nurses will be able to conduct initial medical assessments, classify soldiers' conditions and "raise a [warning] flag if they need urgent intervention," a response Gozlan said was better suited to soldiers' needs.
In addition to the dramatic change to the IDF's battalions, this year, the Medical Corps also began increasing the number of soldier-students who train as nurses before joining the military.
Unlike in the civilian world, where the large majority of nurses are female, student IDF nurses include 40% male recruits, Gozlan noted. "They want field experience and the military experience, but they're also looking for an opportunity to treat others. For those who want roles away from the field, we can cater to their wishes, too."
After studying for three years, the recruits receive a bachelor's degree in nursing and then serve four-and-a-half years in the military. Most student soldiers serve six years of professional service after completing their studies – a year-and-half more than the IDF's nurses.
"This is an attractive path. The IDF pays for their academic studies and their university residences. It has them do their mandatory service in their profession but shortens their service by a year-and-a-half. They gain operational experience, and then they head to the civilian health care system with knowledge and experience," Gozlan explained. "They're coming from a very strong position, from which it is easy for them to find employment in the civilian system."
In light of Israel's nationwide nursing shortage, this path will also prove vital for the civilian world, she said.
"We shortened their service so they can help the national health care system," Gozlan said.
Since October 2018, the number of IDF nurses has increased significantly. This year, 56 military nurses entered service, compared to the 25 that served in previous years.
Later this year, the Medical Corps plans to increase the number to over 70. "That is three times what we began with back in 2012," Gozlan said, adding this would allow the IDF to help compensate for the shortage of nurses in the civilian sphere.
Gozlan also noted that over the last two years, Jews from the Diaspora have been opting to join the IDF as nurses at an increasing rate.
"This is not something we've seen in the past," she said.
'Saving lives is deeply rooted in our ethics'
Gozlan, who took up her role as the IDF's head nurse in 2017, enlisted in the military 20 years ago and has held a range of medical, command and administrative roles.
She said one of her most moving moments occurred during an awards ceremony held in early May by the Israel National Nurses' Association Ethics Bureau, which honored IDF nurses for their work tending to the wounded in Syria's civil war.
"Beyond our routine role, nurses also have a role to play in emergencies," she said. "In the military, they know they must be available and that at any time, they can get a phone call and head out on a mission with an unknown duration. They could be deployed in Israel or abroad, like on a humanitarian mission for earthquakes.
"The nurses leave their families behind, they leave their children behind. They pack a bag and head out. They don't always know where they are going. In my eyes, this is a very significant and deep commitment in terms of values. The value of saving lives is deeply rooted in our ethics," she said.
"This is what happened with the patients from Syria. Over the past five years, as the Syrian war raged, the State of Israel made the decision to save lives regardless of whether they come from an enemy state," she said. In line with that decision, the IDF set up a field hospital near the Syrian border, and wounded Syrian civilians began arriving there in large numbers.
"I don't know how they arrived at the border. On pickup trucks, on the backs of people who carried them – they made it. They received medical treatment. Otherwise, they would have bled to death on their own soil in Syria. Intensive-care-unit nurses received them and treated them in operating rooms in a dangerous area that sometimes came under fire," Gozlan recalled.
The IDF nurses were awarded a special citation for their work.
Gozlan said the audience, comprised mainly of senior nurses and male nurses in the national civilian medical system, was "proud to see professionals in their sectors undertake such ethical, professional work," she said.
"It doesn't matter what situation we are in," she said. "Whether on the battlefield, a stretcher, or bedside, we are there."
This article is reprinted with permission from JNS.org.
