What is it like to be a woman in the workplace?
For Dr. Ahuva Spitz, chair of the Bachelor of Science in the nursing program at the Selma Jelinek School of Nursing at the Jerusalem College of Technology, it's about wearing many hats.
On a recent Thursday morning, Spitz conducted a lecture in front of some 40 women who are enrolled in the school's Selma Jelinek School of Nursing, where she gave a comprehensive overview of diabetes. Immediately after, she interviewed a prospective candidate to head the college's new nursing program in English, which will begin next year. In between meetings and lectures, she navigates the other myriad of issues associated with running a program with a multi-million-shekel budget.
With International Women's Day on March 8, Spitz and her students are examples of strong women being able to find that elusive balance between caring for their families, being devoted to doing God's work, and excelling in the workplace.
"I really love what I do," Spitz said during our interview, which occurred in the college's simulation lab, where six sophisticated mannequins were hooked up to equipment and students learned how to treat patients during these high-intensity simulations.
Today, JCT's Selma Jelinek School of Nursing serves more than 1,200 students annually. It is widely considered one of the top nursing programs in the country, having received the Health Ministry's National Prize for Excellence, and ranking first among 24 nursing schools nationwide.
The four-year BSN curriculum includes theoretical studies and clinical experience in various nursing fields. The theoretical studies include courses in the basic sciences, social sciences, foundations of the nursing profession, and advanced courses. Practical studies take place in leading medical centers in Jerusalem and throughout Israel.
Spitz, whose specialty is in nursing and emergency medicine, has witnessed the school's nursing program blossom over the past nearly 15 years.
"In 2008, we had 36 women in the class. The following year, we had 60," she said. "Now, we have almost 200, especially since interest in the program skyrocketed after the COVID-19 crisis."
"Last month we had a graduation ceremony where 140 girls graduated from our two classes. I looked at all of them and had tears of pride in my eyes. Today, they're all working in nursing. These women are going to carry on with their careers and they're signing up for master's degrees and they want more out of their education."
JCT alum Shana Abramson is an example of just that. As a nurse of 10 years, Abramson works in the cardio-thoracic department at Shaare Zedek Medical Center. Her already stressful job has become even more harrowing during the aftermath of the Iron Swords War.
"I've seen soldiers suffer through debilitating pain and multiple injuries," she lamented. "Sometimes we see soldiers who are managing their physical pain, but they're haunted by nightmares."
Each day, Abramson works with a team of medical professionals to determine the right way to address each person's pain in a responsible manner so not only do they not become dependent on the medication, but that they can wean off it when they're ready to do so.
"We tell them to use it now to help them get back on their feet, but then they need physical therapy to recover. And then we taper down the medication once the pain is under control," she added.
What strikes her most about working in a hospital in a post-Oct. 7 world is how grateful each of her patients continues to be despite the horrors they witnessed.
"I had a patient who was a soldier and was critically injured. His friends were killed in an ambush in Gaza, and he was hospitalized for nearly three months," Abramson recalled. "He had to go through 18 surgeries, including an amputation. When he left the hospital to go to rehab, he said goodbye and he couldn't stop thanking us for treating him. The truth is, we should be thanking him. But he wouldn't accept it, so we kept thanking each other in an endless loop of gratitude."
Abramson credits much of her success to her time at JCT. "JCT creates the best nursing students in the country. Some have their bachelor's and even a master's – they want to study nursing, learn Hebrew, and meaningfully contribute to the country."
Helping others is exactly what drove JCT student Tamar Segal. The Toronto native, who is currently in her second year in the school's nursing program, said she was always interested in this profession due to its "unique combination of caring for someone that requires you to be strong physically and mentally. I'm someone who hates seeing people in distress – I always want to be able to help if I can."
Segal came to JCT following her completion of National Service at Hadassah Medical Center. On October 8, Segal returned to Hadassah as a volunteer to help and be productive, while awaiting the start of the academic year, which was delayed due to the war.
Spitz suspects that a major motivation behind her students' sense of duty to care for others lies in the fact that her students are religious, with many belonging to the Haredi community. As such, many students who may have been reluctant to enter other fields that might have clashed with their values, see nursing as a good fit for them through which they express their values.
"Being a nurse allows them to stay within their comfort zone of nurturing, where motherhood and raising a family are values that are held in high regard in the religious community," Spitz said. "From a logistic perspective, the work is convenient because it can be done in shifts, so they have time to care for their family as well."
Spitz acknowledges, however, that the hospital setting can prove to be quite a culture shock for her Haredi students who have grown up in an insulated environment.
The program trains students to expect the unexpected and to treat every patient as a human being who needs to be treated with dignity and respect.
"The focus is not on the body. It's on the totality of the human being," she said.
As an institution that prides itself on combining both holy and secular studies, Spitz acknowledges that working in a hospital can combine those two worlds as well. She recalls a time when a foreign exchange doctor from Germany rushed to retrieve Spitz when one of her patients was dying.
However, the doctor – who was Christian and unfamiliar with Jewish traditions – didn't approach Spitz for medical reasons, but rather spiritual ones. "She was looking for a rabbi but assumed I'd have an idea of what to do in this scenario because I'm Haredi. She, as a gentile, understood that the patient needed to be uplifted spiritually at that moment. We summoned members of his family and explained it was time to say goodbye. After he passed, we ensured he had enough people for a minyan and said Kadish so his soul could have an Aliyah."
Yet, even in 2024 after the COVID-19 crisis and with Israel still in a devastating war, nursing can sometimes be an undervalued profession.
"International Women's Day is about appreciating the work women do that is taken for granted. It's important to have this one day to focus on our contributions. But I understand people can't think of us all the time," Segal acknowledges.
Spitz is in awe of her students who find value in their work even in these times of crisis.
"Being a nurse allows you to tap into all the values of chesed (loving-kindness)," Spitz said. "These are the values our students are raised on. And sometimes they come to work, and they see miracles."
Noa Amouyal is a journalist and editor.
