Let me sidetrack slightly at this point to address a concern about the very legitimacy and appropriateness of the term heroism in nursing. For some critics, the very mention of 'wars against disease', 'defeating illness', 'the battle against SARS', or 'nursing heroism', is tainted. The concern is related to the militaristic or combative nature of such language and how this might shape not only our understandings of illness and disease but also our understanding of nursing itself and indeed the content and foci of our education, research and services.