how do you even get out of scut work?

Being a medical student often means you're "just the extra person around," depending on the service you're on.

I've been on a lot of services where my H&P actually mattered and I got feedback on my differential diagnosis, and I've been on a lot of services where team members just make up random tasks for me to do, like fax this form, or find this tongue depressor 2 floors up, or basically perform nursing duties.

I used to be fine with it.  I used to be all about the team spirit, but now I just feel like I'm paying so much money to get moved around the hospital like a pawn on a chessboard.  I feel like people find it "too hard" to teach and find it much easier to just make you an extra pair of hands without a mind when I could actually be doing a history and physical on an ill patient, or getting a short teaching session.

How much does it cost to drop a few bits of clinical knowledge on your medical student as you walk down the hallway instead of forgetting they're there?

Medical school is a place for education, or am I dementing?  

I've worked with residents and fellows and even attendings who will go do a menial task instead of sending me out to do it because it has no educational value.  I've worked with team members who have sat me at a desk to answer calls and take messages and page this person and that service for hours at a time.

I don't know how it is at your medical school, but it would be great if there was some kind of a more reactive spirit and the time of medical students was valued.  Because guess what, there's only so much time in medical school to train and learn, and then you hit intern year where your knowledge and your skills are put to the test every minute of the day and you can't afford to make mistakes.

Being designated the snacks/coffee person just because I'm a med student really wears on me now.  I miss being on services where I was the "student doctor" who was actually educated and had their clinical acumen made a little sharper.

I've been on services where team members stand up for me when someone makes me run an errand or stand around there silently holding someone's personal belongings while they look for something in their white coat.  I've been on services where I'm just forgotten about.

I hope a lot of people read this entry and can come a little closer to understanding/remembering what it's like to be a med student.  We're eager to learn, every minute of our time needs to be spent learning so we can become great doctors who nail the diagnosis, save the hospital money by ordering the right tests, and know how to catch subtle physical exam findings.

Everyone in medicine is told to be compassionate with their patients.  No one is taught to be compassionate to learners, and there's hardly any spirit of teaching unless there's some really dedicated, passionate team member.

Pretty often, I feel like I'm missing out.  As self-propelled and assertive I am about my education, it's hard when a service is so busy that there's no time for teaching, or these senior team members just have little excitement for teaching.  There's so much I could learn from these people with tons of experience, but it's out of the question all too often.

If you're going to send us out to do a task, at least pay us in knowledge or procedures.  We're not paid to be in the hospital, we're paying to be there.  Thanks.