February 22, 2008

Deadpan at the Dead Sea
Leonard Mafrica, MBA, CAE, Executive Director of ONSEdge and ONS Publisher

In English, “deadpan” is a theatrical expression that means to have an expressionless face, often while telling a joke. Have you heard the one about the American who went fishing in the Dead Sea?

So, I’m sitting having a fabulous fish dinner with two Palestinian nurse educators, Yousef and Abdul, in the communal dining hall at Ein Gedi. Yousef says to me, “How is the fish?”

“It’s fantastic,” I respond.

“You know where it came from, don’t you?”

“No, where?”

“The Dead Sea,” says the Palestinian.

“So, do they take boats out there or fish from the shore?” says the American.

The Palestinians flash glances toward each other. Without expression, Yousef explains, “Nothing lives in the Dead Sea. That is why they call it dead.”

We caught another one, their eyes said. The three of us erupted into laughter. My two new friends—people who live in a world where peace is elusive yet humor survives—and me, finding a small way to bind us together in a place where all three were strangers.

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Leaders Are Made Through LDI
Nurseven Karaman, RN, MSc, Ankara, Turkey, ONS LDI Israel Participant

The 2007 ONS Leadership Development Institute (LDI) in Israel was a great experience and a chance for me to get the most comprehensive information from the unique members of LDI.

Apart from everything, I clarified my personal values, and my life is more productive and satisfying now. It was a voyage of discovery for me, and at the end of the values identification exercise, the values defined by me surprised me. Being at peace with myself, being mentally and physically well, steady and adequate income, achievement, and pleasure were among the most important values for me.

I also learned much about the framework of a project. I gained important insight about project description, objectives, significance, risks and rewards, rationale, team composition, and evaluation. I think I now know more how to interpret the verbal and nonverbal signs than I did in the past.

I used to think that leaders are born, but now I know very well that leaders are made. I am trying to be a leader and develop others to act. I have the courage to act in a way that will benefit the people around me and my patients. I am trying to take the responsibility, not blame others, and be more tolerant.

I am sure I still have a lot to learn about leadership and will continue to seek more information. I wish for a better world and will try to create it. I think this is the way to achieve greatness. But, I am trying also not to forget that realistic expectations are among the most important ingredients to live a happy life.

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Nurses Have a Responsiblity to Be Leaders
Yolanda Kading, RGN, Kolossi, Cyprus, ONS LDI Israel Participant

Nurses from the United States, Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Turkey, and Cyprus gathered in Ein Gedi to attend the three-day ONS Leadership Development Institute, presented by speakers from the United States. There was a mix of wonderful, enthusiastic people from different cultural, ethnic, and religious backgrounds, who had come together to bond and learn from each other.

In my post as a palliative home care nurse, working for the Cyprus Association of Cancer Patients and Friends, I am part of a team in which everyone is very much on an equal footing. The word “leader” concerned me slightly. How could I be a leader when all the nurses on our team are thought of as equal?

During the course I soon realized that, in the past, I had not quite grasped the leadership concept. As nurses we all have a duty to be leaders and to strive to improve our leadership skills. We are constantly teaching, guiding, and supporting each other in our efforts to offer the best possible evidence based care to our patients and their families. We lead the way for others to follow and, in the process, we often succeed in doing so in a very subtle, unobtrusive manner.

On the last day, as we all gathered together at the lowest point on earth, beside the Dead Sea, the energy of the entire group was so positive that it was electrifying. From where we stood, we were able to look up at the flourishing botanical gardens of Ein Gedi, which are set against the harsh back drop of the Judean Desert hills. It was there that it struck me that nurses must also grow and flourish, some in more adverse conditions than others, and it became evident that the symbolic choice of venue was no accident.

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February 15, 2008

Learning Leadership Abroad
Kate Shaughnessy, BA, Member Relations Manager

As Leadership Development Institute (LDI) participants learn, leaders are not “born.” Leadership is a learned function rather than a “self-generating” one, and does not occur without the personal development of character, skills, life perspective, and experience.

Forty-two oncology nursing leaders (and one surgical oncologist) learned in December 2007 that leadership is developed through collaboration and respect. Five different Middle Eastern countries, a widespread background of experience and specializations, and a variety of institutions were represented in Ein Gedi, Israel for the two and a half day International LDI.

The key to the course was interaction. In a region of the world where leadership development is not a common practice and open discussion among the represented countries is not always a comfortable endeavor, the participants worked phenomenally together. Whether in a large group or smaller breakouts, they expressed themselves and their ideas freely, developing their values, priorities, project plans, and self-awareness. Jesse Jackson once asserted that “leadership has a harder job to do than just choose sides. It must bring sides together.” And that is exactly what happened.

Collaborating with the Middle East Cancer Consortium and Israeli Oncology Nursing Society to facilitate the personal and team development that nurses in the United States have been experiencing through LDI for a decade was a unique experience. Taking this intense program abroad globalized the leadership aspect of oncology nursing and brought different worlds together.

Leadership is about personal development, confidence, and taking risks... then, if you’re lucky, running for a dip in the Dead Sea.

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Participants Learn to Turn Dreams Into Practical Projects
Sarah Ben Ami, RN, MA, and Jessica Livne, RN, PhD, Israeli Oncology Nursing Society

The Israeli Oncology Nursing Society initiated a joint, multistep program designed to promote oncology nurses’ leadership skills in partnership with the Middle East Cancer Consortium. The two organizations asked the ONS to carry out its Leadership Development Institute workshop in Israel.

The workshop included oral presentations, interactive sessions, and small group breakouts. Participants were given a set of questionnaires that helped them to identify their set of priorities, ambitions, self development, and moral standpoint. The participants were taught what a vision is and how to define it. Combining moral standpoint with vision is crucial for leadership. Each participant was encouraged to share their special “dream,” the one issue or subject that they want to promote or change in their daily practice. How to turn such a dream into a practical project plan was a key issue of the workshop.

Working in small groups and the interactive sessions created opportunities for informal relationships between participants, which could initiate partnerships on future projects. Furthermore, it enabled professional communication between nurses in the Middle East to promote better care for patients in the region.

Many of the participants expressed their willingness and desire to see a tangible follow-up to this first and very successful initiative. They wrote: “I would like to thank the organizers for an exiting and inspiring workshop”; “This workshop would help us to bring our professional dreams into reality”; “We took a lot of energy, ideas, and faith from each other to promote our projects”; and “The workshop was beyond my expectation in terms of logistic issues, the program, and the social friendship between the participants from the region.”

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February 8, 2008

Oasis Offers a Setting for Meaningful Learning
Lydia Branzburg, RN, MA, ONS LDI Israel Participant

Ein Gedi is a desert oasis located in the Judea Desert in southern Israel, and that’s exactly how I felt during those incredible four days we spent while attending the Leadership Development Institute in December 2007: like being in a real oasis.

For me, the most exciting part of the meeting was the opportunity to meet nurses from all over the Middle East, in particular, the Palestinian Authority, and, of course, to be able to participate in a learning experience with such great teachers as Barbara Summers, PhD, RN, and Brenda Nevidjon, RN, MSN, FAAN. I learned so much from both of them, not only about leadership but also about the way things are in the nursing world in the United States.

As head nurse of the oncology unit in Kaplan Medical Centre in Rehovot, Israel, I have participated in a lot of training courses on the subject of management and leadership, but this one was different.

It wasn’t only being in the classroom and studying. I think the real and most meaningful learning took place during the "free" time: at meals, walking through the gardens, looking around at the amazing desert landscape. And all that together with people coming from such a diversity of places most of them unknown to me.

And of course the learning continues with the project I am planning to do now in my workplace—one that I will do with the assistance of experienced nurse members of ONS. I can’t believe that all this is a byproduct of that long weekend in Ein Gedi.

I am very grateful for the opportunity I had of being in that oasis, and I am very glad to be able to share that experience with all of you.

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February 1, 2008

Common Purpose in a Land of Contrasts
Leonard Mafrica, MBA, CAE, Executive Director of ONSEdge and ONS Publisher

My first time to Israel and to the Middle East opened my eyes in ways that I had not experienced before. I was struck by the contrasts, both physical and philosophical, yet could see in a tangible way how what appears to be different is in fact the same.
 
The location of the conference was Ein Gedi, a kibbutz on the Dead Sea. Ein Gedi is an actual oasis—lush, thick, green growth erupting unexplained from the middle of a barren land. The beauty of one against the other was striking, but not as striking as the common purpose I saw in the nurses participating in our program. People from many parts of the Middle East whose cultures my Western eyes had seen only through the filter of U.S. media, people normally described as enemies, greeted each other like old friends, sisters and brothers, sharing a common purpose as nurses who care for people with cancer.

I participated in the December 2007 Leadership Development Institute as a member of the ONS staff. I was not there as faculty or to manage the meeting itself, but to observe and learn how ONS might bring more education to other countries. We recognize, of course, that each place and every person is unique. Perhaps the difference that separates us is not as deep as the purpose that brings us together.