Daniel Sperling

Alexandra studied physical therapy at the Haifa University and achieved a Bachelor's degree in 2012. Since then, she has worked with various populations of younger and older adults with disabilities. Alexandra is experienced in multidisciplinary work both in community-based and institutional settings. She has accompanied some of her patients and their families for several years, through the final stages of their lives. In 2023 she attained a Master's degree in gerontology after graduating from Haifa University. Her thesis dealt with the lived experience of aging adults with Cerebral Palsy around physical therapy and the meaning they attribute to it at the current life stage. Nowadays, Alexandra is a Ph.D. student in nursing. Her research focuses on palliative care for aging adults with lifelong disabilities. This work aims to explore the needs of this understudied population regarding medical and paramedical treatment. It also aspires to apply the palliative approach on a group of people who experience lower quality of life due to disability rather than illness.

Grace Qamar Elemy is a Ph.D. student in nursing in the direct doctoral track at the University of Haifa, where she also received an excellence award. She holds a bachelor’s degree in nursing from the same institution and, with the encouragement of Professor Sperling, chose to pursue an academic research career. She sees in the nursing profession in general and nursing research in particular as an opportunity to develop her academic career and professional advancement.

Her doctoral work focuses on moral distress among nurses in Israel, aiming to map perceptions and attitudes of nursing staff in intensive care units, emergency departments, and surgical wards, as well as to identify its extent, influencing factors, and consequences. Using a mixed-methods design, she first conducted interviews with 23 hospital nurses, analyzed through Constructivist Grounded Theory (CGT) to build a theoretical model. She then developed and published a survey to test the model and applied Structural Equation Modeling (SEM).

Grace’s research not only contributes a theoretical and empirical framework for understanding moral distress but also emphasizes the importance of raising awareness among healthcare staff and organizations to foster change. Despite its wide discussion in the literature, moral distress remains complex and insufficiently understood, underscoring the significance of her work.

Born in 1983 in Shefa-‘Amr, Nidaa Natour is a Ph.D Student in nursing at The University of Haifa. She holds an M.A. Degree in Clinical Nursing from Ben Gurion University, and a B.A Degree in Health Systems Management from Emek Israel College. Ms. Natour works as a nurse and a lecturer at Hadassah University Hospital, Mount Scopus (Jerusalem). Her main focus is developing skills and training methods in nursing by building, together with the university’s staff, courses and workshops in various fields in accordance with the changing needs of the hospital.

Natour’s Ph.D study examines the relationship between religion and the level of religiosity to the level of death anxiety and dying anxiety, and their effect on the intention to receive palliative care within the Arab society in Israel. The study aims to research this relationship and its complexity. Ms. Natour believes that understanding this unique relationship will help to improve the quality of lives of Arab patients in Israel who are at the end of their lives by establishing practical ways to properly manage levels of death anxiety and dying anxiety, and by increasing the involvement of the dying person in making decisions regarding the end of their lives, whether or not they wish to be referred to palliative care.

Michael Markman is currently enrolled in the Master’s degree program in Nursing. Michael holds Bachelor’s degrees in Nursing and Law and a Master’s degree in Law with a specialization in Health and Law from the University of Haifa, as well as a B.A. in Natural science from the Open University in Israel. He is a registered nurse since 2014, and currently is employed as an operation room nurse in Soroka Medical Center in Beer Sheva. In addition, Mr. Markman is a member of the Israeli Bar Association since 2020. Mr. Markman’s thesis is concerned with the practice and implementation of informed consent in the context of surgical patients and the way that such practice and implementation accord with the Patient’s Rights Act. 

Manar is currently a student in the Master’s program in nursing, with a bachelor’s degree in nursing from the University of Haifa. She is a registered nurse since 2021, and currently is employed as a nurse in the emergency center for corona patients at Maccabi Health Services. Manar’s thesis focuses on the healthcare coping with the event of a patient’s death. In her work, she is qualitatively exploring and seeking the understanding of the staff’s experiences in dealing with a patient’s death, and the effects of such events on their mental well-being. Her research aims to contribute to increasing mental resilience among the caring staff, and preventing mental burnout among them, especially those who work with terminally ill patients.

Ihab Watad is a currently a Master’s student in Nursing at the University of Haifa generic program. He holds  a bachelor’s degree in nursing from the University of Haifa, and an EMT- PARAMEDIC certificate from MDA. Ihab works as a nurse in the Internal Medicine Department at Sheba Hospital since 2012. Ihab’s master’s thesis focuses on the relationship between nurses’ compassionate care, compassion fatigue and self-compassion and their response to and experience of a patient’s death.

Svetlana is enrolled as a student in the Master’s program in nursing under the Symptom Management specialty. She holds a B.A. in Nursing from the  Zefat Academic College. Svetlana completed an advanced course in Emergency Medicine and Clinical guidance at the Center for Advanced Training in Nursing in Rambam Hospital. Since 2018, she is practicing as a nurse and currently holding the position of the head nurse’s deputy in the ER at Bnei Zion hospital in Haifa. Svetlana’s thesis focuses on family presence during resuscitation. In her research, she qualitatively examines and explores the ER working staff views and perceptions regarding family presence during resuscitation, the meanings attached to it, and the ethical and cultural aspects related to the researched phenomenon.

Yaniv is currently a student in the Master’s program in Nursing. He holds Bachelor’s degrees & P.E. in Electrical Engineering. Yaniv graduated the program for retraining academics to nursing. He completed an advanced course in ICU and Clinical training, and he currently works as an ICU nurse in Wolfson Medical Center.

In his thesis, Yaniv qualitatively explores the nature of the relationship between organ donors and recipients and the experience and meanings attached to such a relationship.

Shira is currently a student in the Master’s program in Nursing. She holds bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Bar Ilan University and graduated the program for retraining academics to nursing. She completed an advanced course in ER medicine and works as a registered nurse at the emergency department in Sheba Medical center for the last ten years.

In her thesis, Shira explores the relationship and effect of moral distress of nurses on the quality of nursing care in the emergency department.

Shani holds a B.A in Political Science and Public Communication from Bar Ilan University; an M.A. in Dispute   Resolution, Mediation, and Negotiation from Tel Aviv University; and an LL.B degree in law – with specialization in international commercial law from the Center for Law and Business in Ramat Gan and LL.M degree in law from Tel Aviv University. She is currently an associate at Pearl Cohen law firm.

Ms. Ben Shitrit’s research under the supplementary track leading to Ph.D. studies, entitled “The impact of AI technologies on the application of the dying patient act” aimed to examine the impacts of technologies-based AI on improving the quality and timing of palliative care. Specifically, she intended to focus on two challenges deriving from the Dying Patient Act: the lack of clarity in the definitions of the act and the lack of a linked database between medical institutions that would have contained the preliminary instructions of a dying patient and her medical information. These challenges make it difficult for the staff members to make real-time decisions in complex situations.

Ori held an M.A. Degree in Cognitive psychology from the University of Haifa, and a B.A Degree in Psychology and Education from Tel-Hai College. He is currently a teaching assistant at Emek Israel College and Writing assistant at Gordon Academic College. 

Ori’s Ph.D. research focused on the family-work conflict of working informal caregivers who take care of an elderly person entitled to a nursing benefit in the Israeli context. The study used quantitative and qualitative designs to provide a theoretical model for understanding the resources, requirements and needs of informal family members dealing with the conflict. The work had much significance to the nursing profession. Following the promotion of the community care, the community nurse has an important role in maintaining the well-being of the informal caregivers by supporting and providing required knowledge and training. The study contributed to a deeper understanding of the nurse’s role in the community, with an emphasis on  communication and the relationship with the informal caregiver, as well as implications for building the nurses’ school curriculum.

The research received a grant from the Israel National Insurance Institute.

Wassiem Abu Hatoum was a Nursing Master’s student at the University of Haifa. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Nursing from the University of Haifa.

Mr. Abu Hatoum is working in Nephrology unit in HaEmek Medical Center-Afula since 2007. He completed an advanced course in Nephrology and Infection control. He presented research papers in international conferences held in  Ljubljana-Slovenia and Valencia-Spain in addition to his participance in many Nephrology and Infection Control conferences in Israel.

After the completion of his studies, Mr. Abu Hatoum started his work at the ER department of the HaEmek medical center as an additional position and works in it to this day.

Mr. Abu Hatoum’s thesis is entitled “Shared decision-making at end-of-life care for end stage renal disease patients in Israel” . In his research, he aimed at  contributing to the practice of nephrology at end-of-life, especially with regard to decision-making and advancement of patient care. 

Wassiem received  a grant for his research plan from Minerva Center for Interdisciplinary Study of End of Life.