Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Beersheba has invited 20 senior Chinese health professionals for the Israel-Shanghai Collaboration in Health Emergency Management, a three week training course that runs from September 1-19. The workshop is designed to promote the policy initiated by the Israel government to enhance relations between the two countries. In addition, the organizers said global disaster management can be best attained through collaboration and cooperation among all countries. BGU said its center for emergency response research has specialized in the last few years in creating and disseminating knowledge and research in the field of disaster management and has been recognized as a center of excellence in this field, both locally and globally. The Chinese officials come from the Office for Health Emergency Management of the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Health and Family planning. The course was organized by BGU's Faculty of Health Sciences department of emergency medicine in collaboration with the Foreign Ministry's MASHAV department and the Health Ministry. During the course, participants will be exposed to cutting- edge knowledge in disaster management, said Dr. Bruria Adini of BGU's emergency medicine department. They will participate in lectures presented by leading local professionals and visit many relevant agencies, including Magen David Adom, hospitals, and the Home Front Command. This is the first of several such workshops planned for Chinese officials at BGU in the coming years. Meanwhile, BGU's nursing department has agreed to help Duy Tan University in Da Nang, Vietnam. The nursing department at the Vietnam academic institution opened two years ago, and most of the staff are young and inexperienced. BGU president Prof. Rivka Carmi, who visited there, said the department needs help in raising its level. Two senior BGU nurses, Keren Levitin and Nancy Horowitz, were chosen to bolster their counterparts, and they recently returned from Da Nang. The Vietnamese nurses were most grateful for learning about using anatomical simulators for teaching nursing. Students even volunteered to give up their summer vacation to go over with the Israelis the material they had already learned.
