The author reflects on the early entry of clinical and counseling psychology into the general medical hospital setting in the 1950s and 1960s. Drawing largely from his 3½ decades as a Department of Veterans Affairs psychologist (mainly in the areas of tuberculosis and endstage renal disease), he describes problems and contributions associated with psychology's entry into this new arena. These involved not only providing direct patient services at the bedside; just as much, they involved clarifying psychological health concepts, the training of patients and their families in taking the most active roles in their own treatment, and the professional relationships between psychologists and their new colleagues in the medical and surgical wards.