One of the most difficult transitions a young medical student makes is the graduation from bench science and classroom learning to the clinical application of knowledge in the clerkship years of training. Wide-eyed and at times naïve, physicians in training wade, or are sometimes thrown headlong, into life on the wards. These young doctors-to-be are inundated with patient stories; they bear witness to hardship and loss as the patients under their care are often at their nadir.