Health Beat
STEREOTYPES page 33
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son working the midnight shift
by herself on a 22-bed unit. That
resulted in parents not being able
to leave their children if they ex-
pected their children to get care.
You would hand the parent the
medication to give to his child be-
cause you couldn't spend the time
to wake the child up and give it
to him. But I think nursing in Is-
rael is changing now."
Halachah enters into the lives
of many Jewish nurses — for
some on a daily basis, and often
at critical times. Ms. Webber,
who is Conservative and keeps a
kosher home, worked Saturdays
when she lived in Israel.
"You can 'break' the laws of the
Sabbath in order to save a life,"
she states. "One of my fondest
fun memories is when I was in
nursing school doing my obstet-
rics rotation at the University of
Michigan Hospital. The Lubav-
itch rabbi's wife in Ann Arbor de-
livered her babies in the hospital.
I was the only person there who
could interpret for the staff what
was going on. She wouldn't eat
any of the food, and she needed
to use an electric breast pump be-
cause she had twins.
"The nurse was explaining to
her how to use it on a Friday
night. The mother was listening
to the nurse, and she kept nod-
ding like she understood. But she
wouldn't use the darn thing, and
the nurse was getting a little an-
gry with her.
"I said to her, 'Did you know
you couldn't turn the pump on
because it was the Sabbath? But
if you turn the pump on and put
it on her breast without her ask-
ing you to, she won't tell you you
can't.
"So that's what they did."
A number of nurses are more
liberal with their interpretation
of Jewish laws.
Lauren Neuman is a circulat-
ing nurse at Providence Hospi-
tal. She also is Conservative, but,
she says, "I don't keep the Sab-
bath, so working weekends has
never been an issue. And I've
never had a problem getting the
Jewish holidays off when I've
needed them off."
Ms. Neuman says her job is
"wonderfully hectic. On a typical
day ... I might be dealing with
general surgery or open-heart
surgery, or it might be plastic or
vascular surgery. As a circulat-
ing nurse I'm able to help with
any type of surgery. A circulat-
ing nurse is kind of like the pa-
tient's guardian angel."
As for working at Providence,
she says without hesitation, "I
have no problems at all being a
Jewish nurse at a Catholic hos-
pital."
Rabbi Leonard Perlstein, di-
rector of pastoral care at Sinai
Hospital, doesn't see why religion
should be an issue, either. His
opinions about linking faith and
medical professionals are strong.
People
occasionally say,
"You're Jewish.
Why do you do
bedpans?"
Cindy Diskin, RN
"I don't see that nursing has
anything to do with faith," he
says. "Faith doesn't have to ex-
press itself in nursing. Faith ex-
presses itself internally. It's just
human common sense, which
dictates and speaks about a hu-
man being's obligation to take
care of other people. If you see
that someone needs help, you
have to help him. The alternative
is to walk by and not care — to
be indifferent to another person
suffering. To nurse someone is to
care for someone." 0
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Dr. Sabi Shabtai, center, a specialist on Middle Eastern affairs and terrorism,
recently spoke on terrorism in the 1990s to the Medical Section of the Jewish
Federations Young Adult Division. Pictured with Dr. Shabtai are co-chairmen Dr.
Mitchell Milan and Dr. David Altman.