Bridging the Gap: A Medical Student's Transition to Clinical Care

I head into my third-year rotations, acknowledging this distance between expectations and hopes, but knowing it is my responsibility and privilege to strive for more, to bridge the gaps where I can.

Annika N. Hiredesai reflects on where the art of medicine lies—in the gap between patient expectations and hopes.

The essay read in this episode was published in the Teaching and Learning Moments column in the August 2026 issue of Academic Medicine. Read the essay at https://academic.oup.com/academicmedicine/article/101/8/1038/8537902.