It's just a TV show, but one with some astonishing similarities to the classic internship book "The House of God", written by Samuel Shem. They both have the evil chief of staff who claims to be their buddy, the African American best buddy, the guiding angel doc who shows the new guy the way, and plenty of residents trying to bag the nurses.
In terms of what it's really like, there is a lot of stuff that you don't see... doing histories & physicals, writing orders/progress notes, etc. Procedures are important, but for the big ones, you've got ample opportunity to learn. Nobody stands to benefit if you kill somebody--so at least at my school, the residents have plenty of chances to see seniors do it first, and then do plenty under supervision.
Fortunately, at least for me, as a 4th yr med student, I certainly feel like I've got at least minimal competency in all the basic procedures... IVs, blood draws, arterial blood gasses, foleys, intubation, even cental lines to some degree. It's one of the ways in which it pays to go to an inner city school which gives students an opportunity try their hand at these kinds of things. It is also your responsibility to ask... if you finish med school without knowing how to do an IV, it's your fault for not pushing to try.
