Right, I know some residents in a city hospital. If they wanna test the AP's wrath then they'll soon find themselves doing the work and shifts that no one else wants. Nothing better than working graveyard and getting assigned all the difficult patients.

4 is absolutely right. While all other fields complain if they miss their 15 minute smoke break, not having lunch or not getting out exactly at 5 pm, we work 20+ hour shifts with no time to eat or rest. It's not something that most people can fathom in a society that is so dependent on "me, me, me."

or a society made up of people who require food and rest for sustenance...

Not on the federal level, in this instance. Some states may say that you should get so much time off for every 8 or 10 working hours, or some companies may have policies in place for how long you have to be off the clock in a 24 hour period. It just depends on the profession and the state.

5, I'm sure there is, however, this is not enforced in academic medicine among medical students and residents, much like the 80 hour work week isn't. Unfortunately, medical student and residents bosses (the attending physicians) tend to be old fashioned and remember their training days where they worked 100+ hours every week and didn't have time to eat, and feel we must endure the same type of training -- which trust me, we do, and worse with the ridiculous board exams we take. I presume OP is on surgery, as these physicians are notorious for long grueling hours and not eating. However, this is an aspect of medicine that those whom are in the field fully understand. We signed up for this when we signed up to care for every body's loved ones.

I just love the idea that whenever I'm a patient in a hospital, I'm being treated and worked on by completely unrested, starved medical personnel. Because, you know, people are really at their best when they're like that.

Any break I take is not truly a break as I am on call. If something happens that my physician wants me to see or do, I must get up from under my mountain of paperwork and unfinished essays and go. I'm on ER duty this month so nothing is scheduled. I sometimes have no clue how long I've even been awake.

Acting obnoxious to your attending is probably the stupidest suggestion I've seen.