Second-year Touro University-Nevada student Nima Alipour, 25, talks with "patient" Barb Morris, an actress with the Senior Adult Theater program at UNLV. Actors portray patients at Touro in a program that benefits students from both schools. Photo by John Gurzinski. Second-year students at Touro University-Nevada laugh during class as a fellow student tries to diagnose a patient, portrayed by an acting student from UNLV. Photo by John Gurzinski.

Barb Morris has pain in her right wrist. She types on a computer frequently at work.

She had difficulty hanging up a painting in her home recently because of tingling in her hand.

"You'd think my husband would put it up, but no," she complains to her doctor.

She moans and groans and complains. Morris makes life difficult for her doctor.

And she enjoys it.

That's because today, her doctor happens to be a student at Touro University-Nevada, and she's not really suffering from those ailments.

Rather, Morris is an actress with the Senior Adult Theater program at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Through an unusual arrangement, she and other members of the program act out illnesses for medical and nursing students at Touro.

"I'm having a blast," Morris said. "I've never done anything like this before."

Touro University-Nevada in Henderson is the state's only osteopathy school.

The arrangement -- a Touro doctor trains the students at UNLV, who go on to be "diagnosed" by Touro students -- benefits both parties.

"There are models around the country of training actors, but never, as far as I'm aware of, of utilizing the undergraduates at the local university," said Mitchell Forman, dean of the School of Osteopathic Medicine at Touro.

"We're very excited about this program," said Dr. Ronald Hedger, an assistant professor at Touro who also trains the students at UNLV.

Forman said medical students are often like a "fish out of water" and can be uncomfortable when it comes to matching what they've learned in the classroom with patients.

But it's invaluable for students to get experience dealing with patients -- and difficult patients, too -- before they get out into the real world, Forman said.

"It teaches the students behaviors that they couldn't learn from a textbook," he said. "It provides almost a true-life office experience."

There have been three Acting for Stimulating Patients courses, available to undergraduate and graduate students at UNLV, in the last few years. The next one is scheduled for fall.

Forman said the actors can use the skills later on in life.

"There are so many shows on TV that utilize doctors and hospitals and so on, and the patients are actors," Forman said. "Why not train people with those skills?"

Actors are trained in specific illnesses, such as chest pain, depression, pneumonia or appendicitis, Forman said.

"They're instructed not to give any information unless they're asked," Hedger said.

They're also taught to know what their student doctors are supposed to look for to diagnose such illnesses, and can correct the students when the students don't ask the right questions.

Touro pays the acting students between $10 and $15 per hour for their time, Forman said.

Forman said he came up with the idea for the program out of nowhere.

"It was really one of those epiphanies you get while taking a shower," he said.

Forman said he talked to Jeffrey Koep, dean of the fine arts program at UNLV, and Koep was enthusiastic.

Once a semester, Touro has about a dozen actors come in for their upper-level medical students to diagnose in a one-on-one setting that the students are later graded on.

But today Morris is being helped by 26-year-old Anna Avik, a second-year medical student at Touro, in front of a class of more than 50 students.

Morris has been instructed to be difficult -- fast-speaking with a slight attitude -- but Avik seems at ease dealing with her, and immediately starts asking questions.

So you're in pain?

"Of course I'm in pain," Morris snaps. "I wouldn't be here if I wasn't in pain."

When did it start? What are your daily activities like? What medications have you been taking? Have they been helpful?

Osteopathy places an emphasis on the relationship of the musculo-skeletal system to the rest of the body, and Avik pieces together Morris' daily activities to come to the correct conclusion that Morris has carpal tunnel syndrome.

"You'll be OK," Avik assures her.

After Avik concludes her diagnoses, Hedger tells her and the rest of the class that they have to get used to such scenarios.

He said Avik handled the situation well, but didn't ask enough questions about Morris' family history and her personal history, including asking about substance abuse.

"Perhaps she uses amphetamines?" Hedger said. "You don't know."

Students can watch and critique one another in the classroom setting.

One student asks if Avik could have done more to reassure Morris that she'll be able to live with the disability.

For Morris, her participation in the program is not only fun, it provides a valuable tool for future doctors who will face an increasing number of older patients in the future.

"Let's face it. There's a graying of America," she said. "We've seen many, many doctors in our time."

But Morris said she always feels bad when she has to act rude to her student doctors, even if she is acting for them.

"I tell (the professor), 'Please apologize to them after class.'"