I usually try to ignore them and just do my own thing. I have met some students that prefer to try to make the back-stabber look bad.
There was one situation in my OB-GYN rotation when one of our group of four students kept on trying to kiss the resident's asses and did nothing to help out the other students. I hated it, but just figured I would not say anything. One of the other students hated this guy with a passion because of his antics. It got pretty tense between the two of them. Once, in front of the OB/GYN clinic residents room, they began arguing about who takes a certain case. Soon, their voices were loud enough to be heard throughout the clinic and both attendings and residents noticed. I ended up playing the role of the mediator and trying to smooth things over.
The student who was mad at the jack*** told one of the other students on our rotation about it. This other student ended up telling one of the residents about what this student was doing (i.e. not carrying his weight, but trying to look good). The resident had thought he was a great student and was shocked. I ended up picking up my grades at the same time as this guy and he got a pretty bad evaluation. So sometimes it doesn't pay to be an ass kisser / back-stabber.
