Setting field value in BeforeLoad having no effect

It's been a long day and I'm feeling a little loopy, but I'm pretty sure if I set the value of a field in a BeforeLoad script I should see the value when the record is displayed, no?

From the help:

3. The database loads the requested information into the application server for processing. This is where the before load operation occurs – before the requested data is returned to the client.
4. The client receives the now validated/processed before load data

The code:

function OnBeforeSubmit(type)  {      if(type == RECORD_STATE.DELETE)      {          return;      }            SyncFields();  }    function OnBeforeLoad(type)  {      SyncFields();  }    function SyncFields()  {      var physOrder = nlapiGetNewRecord();        log('processing Physician's Order ' + physOrder.getId());      physOrder.setFieldValue('custrecord_physorder_length_of_need', 99);  }