Doctors put a wall up between themselves and their patients; nurses broke it down.

The nurses, I have already learned, are the ones who give us the answers we’re desperate for. Unlike the doctors, who fidget like they need to be somewhere else, the nurses patiently answer us as if we are the first set of parents to ever have this kind of meeting with them, instead of the thousandth.

They (the Singaporeans) even still conduct training for nurses and doctors. They plan to train nurses until 2007.

Pathological changes have taken place on large areas of both lungs. Two doctors and three nurses are working in shifts around the clock to look after him.

An oncology ward is a battlefield, and there are definite hierarchies of command. The patients, they're the ones doing the tour of duty. The doctors breeze in and out like conquering heroes, but they need to read your child's chart to remember where they've left off from the previous visit. It is the nurses who are the seasoned sergeants -- the ones who are there when your baby is shaking with such a high fever she needs to be bathed in ice, the ones who can teach you how to flush a central venous catheter, or suggest which patient floor might still have Popsicles left to be stolen, or tell you which dry cleaners know how to remove the stains of blood and chemotherapies from clothing. The nurses know the name of your daughter's stuffed walrus and show her how to make tissue paper flowers to twine around her IV stand. The doctors may be mapping out the war games, but it is the nurses who make the conflict bearable.

These new facilities have been years in the making and represent the collective thought of doctors, nurses, patients and their parents, architects and many, many others who have brought their unique perspective to the task -- to design facilities that will support the most advanced medical and surgical practice available, anywhere. When we complete the construction, these facilities will enable us to meet our patient care responsibilities well into the future.