The International Nursing Day is celebrated worldwide every year on the 12th of May. This year, An-Najah National University participated for the first time in this event through activities hosted by the Faculty of Nursing in the form of speeches, scientific presentations and posters. Dr. Aidah Abu Alsoud Alkaissi announced the opening of the activity by a speech in which she underlined the importance of Nursing studies and explained the theme of this event, "safe staffing saves lives". She focused on the importance of education and of using new teaching methods at nursing schools. Dr. Alkaissi also talked about the importance of research and its role in success.
During the celebration, the Faculty of Nursing at An-Najah National University announced the launching of a new prize named after the first Islamic Nurse, Nisayba Bint Kaeb. The first female volunteered for nursing 1400 years ago. As Dr. Alkaisi, organizer of the event, announced, the award will be granted to the most idealistic nurse every year from 2007 onwards, thus involving the An-Najah Faculty of Nursing in this international event. She also called for establishing a scientific center for nursing and added that possessing good skills has a positive impact on public health. She also urged health officials and academics to concentrate more on investment in human resources and demanded a balanced relationship between the shortage in the field of nursing cadres and investment.
Dr. Alkaissi briefed the participants of the Faculty of Nursing, considered a scientific and professional venue, to train cadres who will report benefits to the local community and offer the best possible services to it.
Prof. Maher Natsheh, Vice President for Academic Affairs, spoke about the humanitarian aspect of nursing and the effort the university has done and challenges it has passed through in order to establish the Faculty of Nursing. He referred to the university’s interest in developing the scientific faculties and mentioned the university would like to send four graduates to get their higher education abroad in order to get better-skilled instructors for the Faculty.
Dr. Anan Almasri, Deputy of the Health Ministry in Nablus, gave a speech on the importance of nurses and the need for good graduates in this specialty, reminding everyone that good medical care is impossible without good nurses.
Mr. Suliman Turkman, the Head of the Nursing Federation, talked about the importance of nursing and the current shortage within this profession. Participants of the event included the deans and staff members of the university, local community associations and several ministries (among them the Ministry of Health), as well as the Nursing Federation, nurses from different organizations, students and other people interested in this topic. Some presentations and workshops were done under the following headings; evidence-based nursing, nurses target counterfeit medicines, safe staffing saves lives, critical thinking in nursing practice, ethics in nursing, post operative pain management in children and post operative pain management in adults.