During Nurse’s Week we wanted to get to know some of our nurse’s a bit better…
Ms. Gabrielle (Gaby) Lewis-Adut, Head Nurse of the Nursery in Maternity Ward D, was born in Wellington, New Zealand. She shared, “There was no Israeli Embassy in New Zealand and my grandparents took it upon themselves to be the welcoming committee to any Israeli arriving in New Zealand. I was raised on very Zionistic values; you could say it was in my blood…
I hadn’t planned on becoming a nurse. I really wanted to be a doctor. However, Australia, like many other countries has a point scoring system for entrance exams and I missed the cut-off by 2 points. I was really disappointed and decided to take a gap year and study in Jerusalem, in the Machon L’Madrichim M’Chul. I also worked half a year in Kibbutz Tel Katzir.
In the early 1980’s during the Lebanon War, Israel suffered many casualties. I was very moved by the young soldiers who had been killed and wounded protecting Israel and I decided to go to Australia and study to become a nurse.
When I completed my studies, I returned to Israel and following my Zionist values, I lived on Kibbutz Kadarim, where I was the nurse and the cook. I eventually moved to Jerusalem and had my first child. Being back in a hospital and seeing the shortage of nurses, I decided to work in the hospital in the nursery for newborns.
For the past 32 years I have worked in Newborn Services, 15 of those years at Shaare Zedek Medical Center. Being a nurse is not always easy, but I have a lot of job satisfaction–seeing first time parents who have no idea how to care for their newborn baby and are very nervous (babies do not come with an instruction booklet!!), I help them, and guide them and after a few days they have the confidence, tools and understanding of how to care for their child and feel good about themselves…I enjoy working at Shaare Zedek, because it really is a hospital with a caring heart!! There is a lot of support and cooperation among the staff members and an unusually high level of thoughtfulness…In addition, I like working in a hospital that caters to all religions and all races and makes sure that our patients feel very comfortable.”
One mom who recently gave birth to her first child and was in the Maternity Ward D Nursery shared, “Gaby completely changed our birthing experience. After coming to the ward, I was exhausted and I became very nervous about taking care of my new baby girl. Gaby explained to me so much about taking care of my baby and she had endless patience and good humor to repeatedly explain things and help calm me down. Gaby and the midwife who was with me when I delivered my baby, made this an incredible, positive, joyful experience and I am forever grateful.”
