Teachers visiting from Israel have opened up possibilities for further cooperation, especially in the field of transcultural nursing

A nine-member group of teachers from Wolfson Academic Nursing School (WANS) in Israel spent a week at the Faculty of Health and Social Sciences USB. Colleagues from the Department of Nursing, Midwifery and Urgent Care of the Faculty of Health and Social Sciences USB presented the focus of our faculty and its research activities to them. They also guided the guests through the Simulation Centre for Health Professions, and accompanied them to České Budějovice hospital, which closely cooperates with our faculty. The visitors stayed from Monday to Friday. Upon departure, they expressed their gratitude and outlined some of their plans inspired by the visit.

The meeting took place as part of international credit mobility, which belongs to the Erasmus+ programme and is aimed at strengthening scientific research cooperation. The Vice Dean for Science and Research, Prof. Valérie Tóthová, Ph.D., the Director of the Institute of Nursing, Midwifery and Emergency Care of the FHSS USB said:  "We see great possibilities in joint research projects with WANS, which could also lead to interesting publications." Since 2013, Prof. Tóthová has been collaborating with the former Director of WANS, Dr. Sara Nissi, within the European Association of Transcultural Nursing. They have also collaborated on an international research project, the results of which have been published in IF journals.

Wolfson Academic Nursing School was established in 1974 at Wolfson Medical Center as an independent public school established by the Ministry of Health of Israel. In 1992, WANS was affiliated with Tel Aviv University. The objectives of WANS are in line with the goal of Israel’s Ministry of Health to reduce health inequalities. It has launched unique programmes in nursing that reflect the cultural diversity of the local population (a large proportion of the students there are immigrants). WANS is an important partner in deepening the concept of transcultural nursing. Israel has vast experience in nursing, not only in providing culturally sensitive care (aspects our faculty experts have been researching for a long time), but also in educating nurses from different cultural backgrounds.

Due to the diversity of its population, Israel has an extremely rich culture: all newcomers to Israel bring their own cultural and religious practices with them, so Israel has become a kind of melting pot of customs and beliefs, like the United States. The curriculum at WANS logically includes more of a focus on the concept of culturally differentiated care. All this challenges the colleagues at the Department of Nursing, Midwifery, and Emergency Care with incentives to collaborate on various topics addressed by our faculty. At the end of January, nine teachers from the FHSS USB will be discussing specific ways to develop further collaboration with their colleagues from WANS during their visit to Israel.

The Israeli colleagues will now elaborate on their findings from their first visit to České Budějovice, and at the next meeting, they will suggest topics that can be further elaborated together. As Professor Tóthová explained: "The aim is to develop transcultural nursing, because Israel has culturally competent care at a very high level, and they achieve excellent results in this area. But like us, they also focus on preventive activities, so we have a lot of common research topics."

Sara Nissim, PhD, MA, BSN, RN, concluded by thanking everyone for a wonderful stay filled with a lot of information, experience, and pleasant meetings. She expressed her special thanks to Prof. Tóthová and the Dean of the Faculty of Health and Social Sciences USB, Dr. Chloubová, for creating the conditions to deepen this mutually inspiring cooperation. "Our personal relations with Prof. Tóthová have developed over time into very fruitful professional contacts,” she said. “Israel and the Czech Republic have much in common, so I believe this project will continue in the form of student and faculty exchanges, research collaborations, and that we will attract other institutions to further our goals. It is important that we already know each other, like each other, and have a common interest."