In the past year, Jeanne Raitt has had many roles while working with medical students at the KU School of Medicine-Wichita. She’s been the mom of a 5-year-old son with a serious illness, a patient relying on pain medication, and the daughter of a woman diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.

Raitt is among 85 Wichitans who participate in the school’s standardized patient program. She and others in the program have been trained by staff at the Wichita campus’ standardized patient center to role-play patients or family members. The sessions enable students to practice their skills in taking medical histories, communication, interpersonal relationships, and their ability to handle sensitive issues and embarrassing situations.

“We provide a safe environment for students to practice their clinical skills before they see actual patients,” explains Jennifer Brantley, assistant director of the standardized patient center.

Take the case of 55-year-old Ellen Humphries, a college professor who is being seen for abdominal (腹部的)pain. After an exam, students and professors discuss how to treat someone like Ellen, who is educated, well-known in the community, and who isn’t willing to stick to medical recommendations.

“This is a great way to give medical students hands-on learning and training,”says Raitt. “I love watching how students learn about the variety of the cases, and seeing how willing they are to accept feedback from us. Plus, it’s a bonus to get a little checkup now and then.”

For Natashia Gafford, being a standardized patient has provided her with reassurance that future doctors will be able to handle different situations. Gafford, who is the mother of six boys, particularly likes it when her role-playing corresponds with real-life issues she can relate to, such as advocating for her children’s health. “It puts my mind at ease as a parent to know that doctors will learn how to take parents into consideration,” she says.

Our house was across the street from a big hospital, so we rented our spare upstairs room to outpatients (门诊病人). One evening, there was a knock at the door. I opened it to see a truly sick-looking man.

His face looked terrible – it was swollen and red. Yet his voice was pleasant. He told me that he came for treatment and that he’d been hunting for a spare room since noon, but no one would give him one. “I guess it’s my face...”

For a moment, I hesitated, but his next words convinced me: “I’ll sleep in this rocking chair on the porch (门廊). My bus leaves early in the morning.”

The old man had a huge heart inside his tiny body. He told me that he fished for a living to support his daughter, his daughter’s five children and her disabled husband.

He didn’t complain while telling me his story. He was grateful that no pain accompanied his disease, which was seemingly a form of skin cancer .

The next morning, he said, “Can I come back and stay the next time I need treatment?” I told him he was welcome to come again.

On his next trip, as a gift, he brought a big fish and some large oysters (牡蛎). In the years that he stayed with us, there was never a time that he did not bring us gifts like these.

My neighbor warned me that I could lose potential renters by putting up the old man after he left the first morning.

Maybe we did lose renters once or twice. But if they had known him, perhaps their illnesses would have been easier to bear. I know our family will always be grateful to have known him; From him, we learned what it was to accept the bad without complaint and the good with gratitude.

A new exhibition celebrates the life of Florence Nightingale, an English woman whose ideas about cleanliness are vital to this day.

The exhibit can be seen at the Florence Nightingale Museum at St Thomas' Hospital in London. It marks the 200th anniversary（周年纪念） of Nightingale's birth. The exhibit tells the story of how she overcame difficulties to become the world's most famous nurse. The show recreates her bedroom and lets visitors hear a recording of her voice, and even smell the perfume she wore. Fiona Hibberts is a nursing consultant and works for the hospital's Nightingale Academy. She described Nightingale's work as "really, really significant" to future generations. "Obviously, she was a forceful leader," Hibberts said. "And we need clear, visible, strong leadership today and certainly in modern nursing."

The exhibition, called "Nightingale in 200 Objects, People & Places", will continue for a year. St Thomas' is one of a small number of hospitals in Britain with an area for the treatment of coronavirus patients. "The emphasis on good hygiene（卫生）, fresh air, exercise, good food ... no matter how much we advance, those fundamental foundational principles of Florence are still very much the basis of modern nursing," Hibberts noted. She added, "It's the same old message: Wash your hands."

Nightingale became world famous after she and a small team of medical workers travelled to modern-day Istanbul during the Crimean War. It was fought mainly on the Crimean Peninsula in the middle of the 1850s. Nightingale helped treat British soldiers wounded in the fighting. In an unclean hospital, she witnessed thousands of soldiers die from infectious diseases. Their deaths led to her decision to try to improve conditions. The lamp she used when visiting patients at night, as well as the nurses' uniform she created, is on display at the exhibition. Yvonne Moores is Chair of the Florence Nightingale Foundation and Britain's former national Chief Nursing Officer. "If Florence Nightingale herself was here, she would be supporting all that is being said at the moment. She was absolutely into infection control and hand-washing, being very observant."