Make Way For Ducklings

There are many times when I feel that the multiple 3rd year students on any given service look like ducklings as they trail behind an intern, resident, or attending.  There are several reasons why this occurs.  3rd years, just like young ducklings, must face many dangers in their new environment.  Some of the perils that await the 3rd year during his or her first days in the hospital:

1. Hospitals are mazes.  They are like casinos in their ability to disorient you to direction and time.  3rd years are used to the safety of the lecture hall and the library, the domains of the preclinical years.  The bright lights, identical hallways, and multitude of oddly named buildings of the hospital take some getting used to.  
2. People will ask you for directions.  You are wearing a white coat and/or scrubs.  You have a badge. You look like you belong.  Well, that's a joke.  You are barely able to find your own locker let alone the radiology residents' reading room (bam, alliteration!) that you were asked to find.
3. Some people have looks of horror on their faces when they enter an elevator full of White Coats. Just be aware of this and don't take it personally.
4. You will lose your attending.  He or she will momentarily duck into a patient room or go to talk to a nurse and you will have absolutely no idea where he or she went.  You will look like a lost puppy.
5. At 6am (or some other absurdly early time), all of the ducklings will enter a patient room with the Mother Duck for rounds.  I can only imagine that many patients have nightmares about how a room full of doctors is going to interrogate them in the dark when they are barely awake.
6. You are not sure of your role in the hospital.  Hence you attach yourself to people who look like they know what they are doing and wait to be asked to do something.  Yes, it is as vague as it sounds.
7. Finally, just try to keep up, no matter the length of your stride in relation to that of the resident.