Bio-Behavioral Research and Intervention Lab

Shlomit is the head nurse in the Disability Administration, Ministry of Welfare and Social Affairs, and a doctoral student in the department of nursing, University of Haifa. In her doctorate she studies organizational and individual resilience among direct support providers for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) facing challenging behaviors. Her research focuses on the ways in which organizational and personal resilience influence the cognitive and behavioral strategies employed by direct support providers to reduce and/or prevent challenging behaviors in residential care facilities. 

Ilana is the head of the oversight team of the Nursing Geriatric Services of the Ministry of Health, Israels northern district, and a doctoral student in the Department of Nursing, University of Haifa. Her doctorate focuses on Interpersonal emotion regulation during caregiver-patient-family interactions in long-term geriatric care facilities. As demographic, medical, economic, and social shifts contribute to a growing elderly population requiring institutional care, informal caregivers often accompany and advocate for their loved ones in institutional environments. Together with the patient and professional staff, they form a complex triadic care system. In her research she explores the concept of flexible interpersonal emotion regulation between formal- and informal caregivers within long-term geriatric care settings, and whether flexibility in emotion regulation can affect quality of care and wellbeing outcomes. The goal is to inform approaches that balance the expectations of multiple stakeholders while supporting sustainable emotional practices in professional caregiving.

Essabela is a registered nurse, and an international doctoral student in the Department of Nursing, University of Haifa. Essabela has an extensive clinical and leadership experience in healthcare systems in Cameroon, Africa, with expertise in pediatric care, HIV/AIDS management, and community health. In her doctorate, she studies caregiving aspects in pediatric populations with congenital heart disease (CHD). Essabela's study focuses on identifying interchangeable factors that evoke parenting stress in parents of infants with CHD, and on testing a moderated-mediation model linking those to child and family outcomes. 

Dana is a registered nurse with an extensive clinical and leadership experience, including roles in nephrology and pain management units at Rambam Health Care Campus, where Dana also served as head nurse. Currently, Dana holds the position of Deputy Director at the Advanced Nursing Training Center in the Northern District, and is pursuing her doctoral studies at the Faculty of Social Welfare and Health Sciences, University of Haifa, with a specialization in health policy and administration.  Dana's doctorate focuses on the inherent tension between adherence to institutional protocols and the need to question procedures in favor of individualized patient care. Her study investigates the strategies nurses use to navigate these paradoxes, as well as the personal and organizational conditions that support effective coping. The research aims to promote both nurse well-being and care quality by informing frameworks for reflective and resilient clinical practice.

Rachel is a certified nurse with advanced clinical certification in breastfeeding counseling, working in the neonatal department at Rambam Health Care Campus. Her extensive clinical experience guiding and supporting mothers in the immediate postpartum period has inspired her research focus on promoting the practice of zero separation—the continuous physical and emotional proximity between mother and newborn. Rachel investigates the predictors of zero separation among postpartum women, aiming to inform evidence-based approaches for encouraging this care model in hospital environments. 

Gada is a registered nurse working in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Hillel Yaffe Medical Center, with clinical and academic training in multiple areas of perinatal care. Gada holds a BA in Health Systems Management, and has completed advanced training in neonatal and preterm intensive care, breastfeeding consultation, and clinical instruction. Gada is interested in maternal well-being and postnatal health, neonatal intensive care, breastfeeding, and the clinical staff's well-being. In her research, Gada examines how objective and subjective factors of the labor and birthing process interact, and in turn effect women's health after childbirth, including the well-being of both mother and newborn. Such factors  include medical and psychological aspects, women's and midwives'  perceptions, and the emotional and professional experiences of the caregiving staff. Her research aims to improve holistic maternal care, and strengthen team resilience and functioning within the NICU setting. 

Shira is currently completing her Bachelor of Science in Nursing at the University of Haifa and has been accepted into an accelerated MSc Nursing track. she is interested in interdisciplinary integration between clinical care, research, and technological innovation in healthcare settings. Her research focuses on mapping the coping strategies of parents of children with eating disorders across the illness trajectory, in attempt to find the situational goodness-of fit within the flexibility paradigm.  

Bar is a registered nurse with a multidisciplinary academic background and clinical experience in nephrology and dialysis care. She holds a BA in Behavioral Sciences and completed a nursing conversion program at Hillel Yaffe Medical Center, alongside advanced certifications in nephrology and clinical instruction. Her research focuses on emotional regulation processes in dialysis patients, examining how emotional regulation mechanisms influence symptom perception, illness interpretation, and psychological well-being in chronic care settings.

Amer is a recently graduated registered nurse, and an MSN student with research interests in emotional regulation in nursing, occupational stress and burnout, and empathy in chronic care. He studies the emotion regulation strategies among dialysis nurses, examining how emotional processes affect burnout, stress, empathy, and the quality of patient care. The study aims to inform frameworks that support emotional resilience and professional sustainability in high-intensity, long-term caregiving environment

Dr. Artzi- Medvedik is a public health clinical nurse specialist, with an expertise in mother-newborn care and breastfeeding. In her fellowship she studies the resilience strategies and coping flexibility of parents of children with eating disorders. Her research utilizes a mixed-methods design (qualitative and quantitative), aiming at identifying parental cognitive and behavioral coping strategies, and analyzing  parental coping profiles longitudinally, to further characterize the coping flexibility goodness-of-fit in this population.