You're in a hospital trying for the first time to be a doctor. No more textbook diagrams and classroom cadavers; this is the real thing, in real time. You've got a patient who's convinced that her illness is the same one that she saw once on "Oprah" and is turning down all other tests. A young woman is being told she'll have to sacrifice one baby to save the other. And you just told another patient she might have cancer but left her panicked when you had to rush off. How do you handle all this and stay sane, and then somehow become a good doctor? Here are candid firsthand accounts of the profound experiences that transform medical students into doctors--for better or worse--right at the bedside.