[/rant]The dumbest nurse can put in a foley like they were born doing it. And many of them look at you like you are stupid because you can't put in an IV or a foley, and don't know what a wet-dry dressing is (let alone how to apply one). You can see them wondering "what do they learn in medical school?" Never mind that they were given tons of instruction and practice time learning those skills and yet we are often expected to do it perfectly the first time, with poor instruction, and often while people are critically evaluating us. [/bitter]
Yeah, that sounds like my experience.
The first time I put in a foley, the nurse (who was the world's worst teacher) kept contradicting herself. First she said that the bag WASN'T sterile, and then, 3 minutes later, she screeched that it WAS sterile and that I had contaminated it. Jeebus, lady, make up your mind.
It really is interesting to see the huge divide between what the techs are taught, versus what we're taught. Yeah, that tech could put in a foley better than I could. But, halfway through the case, I heard that tech whisper to another tech, "Why do they keep talking about making sure the patient gets vaccinated? He's just getting his spleen removed."
after hearing about 3rd year rotations (divorces, mean residents, misery), i'm scared about the rotations and don't want them to start.
can anyone say something to make me look forward to it instead? any happy way of thinking about it?
Well, you know the bad parts already. Some of the residents are horrible human beings, the hours can suck, and it's constant subjective evaluations. Your options for getting out of bad situations are much more limited as well. You didn't like your anatomy lab group? Fine - spend minimal time in lab, don't study with these people, and your lab partners didn't grade you anyway. But if you don't like your intern? Well, you can't just run away and hide...since the intern will likely bust you for that on your eval....and you can't just switch teams either. That can sometimes be a tough situation.
Some of the patient encounters are memorable, although not for good reasons. On peds, I had TWO patients where the mother came charging in and demanded that I examine her daughter to see "if she was still a virgin."

Memorable encounters, yes; fun visits, no.
My friends also now really seem to believe that I'm going to be a doctor, so they keep trying to convince me that I should become a plastic surgeon. Not going to happen, but their frequent teasing that I should gets a little wearing at times. It's also a little disconcerting to have your friends text you with pictures of their own rashes, and have them ask you "What is this?"
The good parts - every day is a little different, which can be a nice switch from the pre-clinical years. You'll have a lot of GOOD patient encounters. And all patient encounters (even the bad ones, like I mentioned above) are still better than reading about biochem pathways for hours on end. It's nice when you have a chance to really take ownership of a patient's care, and really get to know someone. You'll be doing stuff that few people get a chance to do - cut out cancers, deliver babies. You get to see people at their best and their worst. And, if you stumble upon the specialty that you love, that surprises you at how much fun it is, every day is a joy.