Medical students are not residents. Residents have graduated from medical school and are doing post-graduate training in their specialty. 3rd year medical students generally do rotate in hospitals, and are sometimes introduced as "student doctor", but they are not actually doctors yet. Interns (1st year after graduating from medical school) and residents (2nd year and beyond after medical school) are technically doctors because they have their MD degrees, but they are still in training in their specialty for 3-7 years.
In a teaching hospital, the medical team may consist of 3rd year medical students, 4th year medical students, interns, senior residents (2nd year and beyond), and attendings. The attending (short for attending physician) is a physician who has completed their medical school and residency and is now a fully qualified doctor. Attendings may or may not be professors at a medical school. The attending generally comes once a day for rounds, when all the patients in the team's area of responsibility are discussed, while the everyday activities of the team are managed by the senior resident. Depending on the team dynamics, the senior resident may supervise medical students directly, or may assign an intern to supervise a resident.
Medical students' work in the hospital is graded by their attending physicians. The attending will usually ask for feedback from the senior resident and possibly the intern, as they have more daily contact with the medical students. Residents aren't "graded" per se, but they are evaluated by their attendings and fellow residents on a regular basis.
As far as "grunt work", at least when I was in med school (10 years ago), assigning medical students to do grunt work was generally frowned upon, as they were there less to work and more to learn. On the other hand, med students were sometimes asked to do things to help out the group. One thing I remember is that, since residents were not able to leave the hospital, med students were often asked to go out and pick up food for the group on call nights. Generally the most tedious thing to do was paperwork - each patient admitted to the hospital needed an h&p (history and physical, a note that documents the reason they're in the hospital and what's happened up to that point, their past medical history, their physical exam, any lab tests or radiology tests that have already been done, any treatment given, and what the plan is going forward), a daily progress note (including what had happened with the patient since the previous day, a physical exam, and the plan for treatment), and a discharge summary when the patient went home documenting what had happened in the hospital. This wasn't considered "grunt work" as it was a necessary part of patient care, but it could be tedious.
To add to this, I've also had doctors ask if I minded their medical student (about the same time you're talking about, I think) to sit in on appts. One was my endo for my PCOS, because I have a very severe case and have quite a lot of the physical markers. The doc basically went over my body and explained to the student the presentation, and things to look for in diagnosis (it was actually really cool because I learned a lot more myself than I otherwise would have!). The other was my psych at the same hospital, who had a student in because I have a somewhat complicated situation between my psych and physical issues. She would ask leading questions, and because I was somewhat out of it, I'd answer them -- and be correct. My psych was (thankfully) amused, mentioned the questions were intended for the student, but that it was awesome that I was educated and aware (and joked that maybe I should be going to medical school).
The rotating that 3rd and 4th year medical students do are sometimes called "clerkships." At the end of the 8-week clerkship, they have a "shelf exam." The 4th years are usually traveling around, doing interviews for residencies, so they don't have as many of those exams. If you don't know about the "Match," you should look that up...everything about it permeates the last two years of med school. Also, they have to take the USMLE Step 2 exams, the CK (clinical knowledge) and the CS (clinical skills).
In a teaching hospital, the medical team may consist of 3rd year medical students, 4th year medical students, interns, senior residents (2nd year and beyond), and attendings. The attending (short for attending physician) is a physician who has completed their medical school and residency and is now a fully qualified doctor. Attendings may or may not be professors at a medical school. The attending generally comes once a day for rounds, when all the patients in the team's area of responsibility are discussed, while the everyday activities of the team are managed by the senior resident. Depending on the team dynamics, the senior resident may supervise medical students directly, or may assign an intern to supervise a resident.
Medical students' work in the hospital is graded by their attending physicians. The attending will usually ask for feedback from the senior resident and possibly the intern, as they have more daily contact with the medical students. Residents aren't "graded" per se, but they are evaluated by their attendings and fellow residents on a regular basis.
As far as "grunt work", at least when I was in med school (10 years ago), assigning medical students to do grunt work was generally frowned upon, as they were there less to work and more to learn. On the other hand, med students were sometimes asked to do things to help out the group. One thing I remember is that, since residents were not able to leave the hospital, med students were often asked to go out and pick up food for the group on call nights. Generally the most tedious thing to do was paperwork - each patient admitted to the hospital needed an h&p (history and physical, a note that documents the reason they're in the hospital and what's happened up to that point, their past medical history, their physical exam, any lab tests or radiology tests that have already been done, any treatment given, and what the plan is going forward), a daily progress note (including what had happened with the patient since the previous day, a physical exam, and the plan for treatment), and a discharge summary when the patient went home documenting what had happened in the hospital. This wasn't considered "grunt work" as it was a necessary part of patient care, but it could be tedious.
Hope that helps with some of your questions.
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