When my mother was recovering from an illness, she had to spend some time in a nursing home to regain her strength. It was a rather sudden decision on her doctor’s part, and I had only a few hours to find one.

I saw her have to wait for assistance with most everything, be served soft and bland foods, and generally have to be away from family and home. We take such things as a daily shower or walking around our homes for granted, but there you have to navigate a crowded hallway in a wheelchair, and you get a shower only on certain days of the week.

She ended up staying 4 weeks, and I learned a lot while she was there. Sure, I had been to visit people at various times, but even as a nurse, I had never spent a significant amount of time at a nursing home until then, and really had no idea what it was really like.

Can health care providers really understand what their patients live with each day in a nursing home?

Earlier this year, Kristen Murphy, an able-bodied 38 year old medical student chose to live in a nursing home for 10 days as part of a geriatric specialty training program:

Ms. Murphy, a medical student at the University of New England in Biddeford, Me., who is interested in geriatric medicine, came to New York for a novel program that allowed her to experience life as a nursing home patient.

Students are given a “diagnosis” of an ailment and expected to live as someone with the condition does. They keep a daily journal chronicling their experiences and, in most cases, debunking their preconceived notions.

While this type of role playing isn’t truly authentic, most people know nothing about life in a nursing home. It’s commendable that these students want to try to empathize with and learn more about their patients in a specialty that’s already short of physicians. Doing so will no doubt make them better medical care providers someday.