Introduction to clerkship

So, even though I'm finished exams, I'm not done school. I still have a week of "introduction to clerkship" before my Christmas holidays. Today was day 1. When I told Ben about it he said it was somewhat like putting a bunch of soldiers in the room and telling them how great fighting a war would be with tanks and guns and armour and then sending them into the battlefield with wooden sticks. We had a talk on how bad sleep deprivation is and how 18 hours of working without sleep makes a person the equivalent of a legally impaired drunk driver. However, we are still asked to do 28 hour shifts on weekdays and 2 24 hour shifts on weekends. We have talks telling us how important it is to eat healthily when on call, but then they tell us that the cafeteria and cafe are closed in the evenings so the only option other than packing a lunch at 5 in the morning to get to the hospital in time for rounds is to order take out. We are told that family, spouses and loved ones should be priorities, however, clerkship is a 16 month study period for the board exams and we should be studying every night as well as sleeping 8 hours - try fitting family in there.

If all of these things are so damn important, why aren't they accommodated for. And, if they're not important enough to schedule around, why do we get lectures telling us how important they are. I can't work miracles and sleep 8 hours a day if I'm on call for 30. For god's sakes, stop confusing me.