During medical school, I really liked using Surgical Recall too. I bought the Mt. Reid book as well and it's a great book, but I hardly used it as a medical student. For those doing a sub-i in surgery, Surgery On Call is a pretty good book. The little red Surgery Intern Book is also a handy pamphlet to have around. This pamphlet will go through how to manage many of the things that happen on call, how to write up pre-op, post-op, admission orders, pre-op bowel preps, etc. Many of the monkeys (medical students) here have both the Surgical Recall book and the Surgery Intern pamphlet.
As the intern of the surgical team this month, this is my ideal medical student:
1. Know the patient!!! Know his hospital course, what meds he is on (especially anticoagulants/antibiotics), CBC/Chem7/PT/INR, know what his GI status is (nausea, vomiting, bowel sounds, bowel movements), know how much is coming in and out from the patient (NGT, JP, Foley, etc.)?
2. Be on time!!
3. Read up on the surgeries the night before. The attendings always ask the same questions over and over again. There are only so many questions you can ask about an appy or a choley.
Ideally, you would know how to suture and tie before your clerkship. I don't expect any of the third years to know how to suture, but you can practice how to tie anywhere. Remember to practice tying a knot WITH gloves on.