Agree that good H&P and presentation skills are essential. If you focus on these things alone, you'll be a rock star. Presentation skills are difficult and takes a lot of stumbling through and feedback to get it right. Furthermore, it can be context-specific, meaning how you present to a medicine team will differ than how you present to a surgical one. Learn how to write good, succinct progress notes and consults; this is also critical.
Beyond that, I found that since we have little to no real responsibility, now is a good time to practice physical exam skills (context appropriate, of course). What I usually do is to pick a certain thing, like otoscopic exam, abdominal exam, pulm, cardio, or whatever and do it for every patient that walks in, whether it is specifically indicated or not, to get the numbers in and to see a lot of variation in normal and in various pathological states. This way, I get to really practice and refine my skill set. It is further enhanced if you can get direct feedback, which is probably easier to obtain in an outpatient setting.
Being helpful and trying to anticipate what is needed next has been useful to me this year. If we are working up a patient, I try to figure out what is needed at the next step, and if it is appropriate and I have permission (which can be presumptive at times) to do so, I try to facilitate or suggest that, whether it is getting a pulse-ox, doing an EKG, ordering labs, pulling old records, listening in on consults, repleting 'lytes, running down to radiology to get an interpretation that is pending, noticing important physical exam changes, keeping an eye on critical trends, and trying to know everything about your patients, etc. Obviously, you are going to need to work with the team on this very closely (can't emphasize this enough). Keep everyone in the loop, checking in frequently. Naturally, a modicum of common sense is needed; you don't want to do anything that is not appropriate for your level, or you don't have the permission to do. Keep everyone on your team as informed as possible. It amounts to being proactive to the extent that is reasonable without compromising on your learning, which is what you are there for (don't forget that).
I received some good advice from a lot of residents that it helps your own learning a lot (with the side-effect of impressing those around you) if you try to function a little above your level. That is to say, if you are a medical student, try to function like an intern. Do this only if you have a decent grasp and familiarity with your own level, of course, but stretching to the next certainly improves learning. Use your common sense, of course, and don't do anything foolish or too far beyond, and certainly work closely with your ward team.
Finally, try to really talk to your patients. We have much more time than interns and residents. Because of that, it is possible for us to notice things that others may not have the time to find out. Sometimes, we are the first person to see the patient and others on the team will depend more heavily on your take. For example, one time, we had a patient that was DMII, but because the patient was a somewhat poor historian and admitted to our service during the night, nobody figured out that he was on basal and sliding-scale insulin, in addition to oral meds. Because I had the luxury of spending more time with the patient, I found that out, informed my team, and proactively wrote the necessary orders for my resident to sign.
it's good to have H+P, knowledge and skills but eventually 1 will lead to the other. go to the SAEM website, they have a med student area with a fantastic article on the 3 minute presentation. I know that can be a little short on say, medicine rounds, but for surgery and EM it worked great.
