It’s Saturday! I’m med student-ing at the hospital all day! Party in the team room.
– A JAMA article relevant to your life: Alcohol abusers had better 1st-year grades and better overall scores on the USMLE Step 1 than their classmates. Discuss.
– Getting in over your head: Another wise (and to-the-point) post from Seth Godin.
– How to quit worrying about being bitchy and actually assert yourself. My surgery rotation has been like a crash course in how to do this, and I can tell you my secret if you don’t actually want to read the article: Screw it.
Seriously, the mental calculus required to determine what residents and attendings think about you isn’t worth the effort. I ask to put in foleys and write admission orders all the time, just because I need the practice. Either my residents think that’s assertive, or they think it’s obnoxious – but either way, I’m happier doing stuff than waiting around in the team room all day.
On mornings where I clearly am not needed or necessarily even wanted, I just give up and leave. Everyone assumes I’m either with someone else or in the OR. And I actually think I make a better impression by sounding smarter on rounds, so it’s totally worth it to leave to go read in the library.
(Or else to take a nap at home. That’s why you never bring your coat to the hospital – it totally impedes the ‘sneaking out between rounds’ part.)
(Kidding.)
(… nope.)
(My surgery grade sure is going to be interesting!)
Action Potential 
Good job, AP! Learning to ask to do stuff in the hospital is a valuable skill.
finally, proof that my drinking habit was beneficial!
The toolboxes that lived next door to me and went drinking 4/7 days of the week not only scored high on Step 1 but also Pre-matched into the IM residency program of their choice. I give up.
Surgeons are crazy. During my pre-med years I worked on an ortho unit in the hospital as a secretary. Getting charts thrown at me seemed to be the norm. We had an orthopod who couldn’t figure out how to use computer charting so he picked up the computer and slammed it on the ground. Guess who didn’t even get a slap on the wrist? Meh, not looking forward to my surgical rotation.