I believe the idea was to have those people as heroes replace, say the Kardashian and the Jersey Shore characters in the attention of a large part of the popula

I believe the idea was to have those people as heroes replace, say the Kardashian and the Jersey Shore characters in the attention of a large part of the population. The argument in having them known rather than Nobel Prize laureate is usually is that its easier to make strong emotional connexion with drama queens than nerds scratching theory; in that case, the strong emotional connexion seems far easier to get and we could use medical role models. Remembering names is hard, even as little as for -- but most people don't seem to remember the names of, say each Kardashian sister, or even Top Gear hosts: they can still point at "the smaller one". Having quotes, biopics, decumentary, rewards... the usual pagentry would allow people to have attitudes towards adversity that are humane, constructive and varied. One of those nurse could be spinned as the Alpha, controlling, head-strong, devil-may-care head nurse; be known widely for that, and still have a first name that most people can't spell. And another nurse could be more fearful, and go through acceptance of her fate, etc.: nothing really new to the ethico-cultural complex. Someone mentionned Mother Theresa earlier: I doubt anyone can spell her civil name; people still know how loving she was, how opinionated, how indifferent to medical cure she surprisingly proved herself to be and have a complex image of her moral stance. Her influence on reconsidering extensive medical treatment as opposed to simple care at the end of a life is a interesting recent development in medecine.