Get real. The interns don't make the rules. Rules are handed down to them. Nor do the med students ever dictate the terms. This IS a hierarchy, and not a new one that's still particularly malleable. I'm not the resident in the above example, I certainly let my med students go eat, leave, etc when it's appropriate. But I certainly work in a culture where it's wrong for them to ask, and expected for them to have provisions in their white coat for the times when the timing doesn't pan out. You aren't going to get to third year and be able to dictate the terms of whatever program you find yourself working in. You are going to simply have to deal with it. If that means carrying granola bars and maybe missing a meal once in a while, that's what it means. That may not make sense, it may be repugnant, it may be unfair. But that's simply the way it works at many places.
Don't shoot the messenger, as many on this thread seem to be trying to do. Just find out from prior med students how things work, and plan accordingly. Working in a hierarchy may be a new experience for a lot of you. Not so much for career changers who may have come from even more strict hierarchies, and have a sense of how deep seated these things are. You don't just say, this is dumb, I'm not playing this game. You play the game. That doesn't make you a sheep, it simply means you understand that there is a culture at work, imposed by years of tradition and/or the higher-ups of the program, and you as a med student, or even a year out of being a med student, aren't going to change it without ruffling the feathers of the folks who had to endure the same thing a few years back and expect that trend to continue.
True, it's hard to yell at someone when your mouth is full of crumbs.
