ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Med.
Sec. Family Medicine and Primary Care
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmed.2025.1583444
This article is part of the Research TopicThe Increasing Relevance of Traditional Medicine Systems for the Primary Health Care Sector and General Practice: Global Research Perspectives – Volume IIView all 15 articles
"For those who don't cry at night": Exploring narratives of integrative medicine practitioners treating hospital personnel during war
Provisionally accepted
Elad Schiff1*
Eran Ben-Arye2
Gali Stoffman3
Ariela Popper- Giveon4Yael Keshet5Avi Golberg6Chezy Levy3Ohad Hochman1Sameer Kassem6
Samuel Attias1- 1Bnai Zion Medical Center, The Ruth and Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Technion Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel
- 2The Ruth and Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Technion Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Haifa, Israel
- 3Barzilai Medical Center, Ashqelon, Israel
- 4David Yellin College of Education, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
- 5Western Galilee College, Acre, Israel
- 6Carmel Medical Center, Haifa, Haifa, Israel
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Background: Promoting the resilience of healthcare providers (HCP) is crucial during peaceful times and even more during national crisis. The outbreak of the war in Israel, Gaza strip, and Lebanon in October 2023 prompted the establishment of integrative medicine resilience clinics (IMRC) in three hospitals; incorporating evidence based integrative medicine (IM) modalities, for reducing emotional and physical concerns among HCP.To explore the impact of the IMRC through narratives of IM practitioners who provided the treatments.Methods: Qualitative narrative research was based on in-depth interviews with 16 IM practitioners from IMRC's in three hospitals. Results: The interviewees' narratives revealed four spheres where the IMRC's contribution is suggested: 1- IM practitioners conceived their work to be effective in improving HCP wellbeing; 2- they felt that HCP functioned more effectively and provided better patient care; 3- practitioners described feeling meaningful, and acknowledged in the healthcare organization; 4- the positive impact of IM on HCP and administrators, positions them as potential advocates for IM in public health. Conclusion: IMRC for hospital HCP may have an important role in maintaining HCP resilience during wartime. These effects may also have ramifications on the recognition of the role of IM in public health during crisis and everyday times.
Keywords: Integrative Medicine, Complementary medicine, Hospital, War, acute stress, healthcare providers, resilience
Received: 25 Feb 2025; Accepted: 15 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Schiff, Ben-Arye, Stoffman, Popper- Giveon, Keshet, Golberg, Levy, Hochman, Kassem and Attias. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Elad Schiff, Bnai Zion Medical Center, The Ruth and Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Technion Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel
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