Dismissed from the US med school

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SaviorDoctor

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Hello all,
I just got dismissed from a US medical school. I passed the Step 1 above average and got above average on ALL of my shelf exams. In fact, some of them were in the 90% percentile range. No professional issues whatsoever; I was always on time and worked more than asked. All the evals said that. I just got some unsatisfactory clinical evals and I am not sure those were justified. Some evaluators wrote things like, I don't communicate well with other attendings or residents, awkward to watch, or too quite and introvert for medicine. At the end, the school thought I was unfit for clinical medicine. Anyway, I am still unhappy how these comments alone were enough for my dismissal, and I am doing what I can to get re-instated.

Meanwhile, I am looking into different Carribean schools that I can transfer to. I would like to start off as a third year student doing the clinicals again. Any advice or thoughts would be greatly appreciated

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I have no advice for you, but I would just like to say...Damn. That really sucks.

Good luck whatever happens mate.
 
There are so many details missing it's hard to know what to tell you. First, reading between the lines, it appears you were a student at a US allopathic medical school (as I don't believe that DO's can use the shelf exam). It appears that you received concerning comments on your clinical rotations, and were ultimately terminated.

Thoughts:

1. US medical schools do not just terminate people for a few comments like this. You likely had multiple comments, over multiple rotations, with multiple warnings, for something like this to happen. Or, you had a "major event", which you have denied.

2. You mention that you're a 4th year student. It seems likely that these problems were noticed in 3rd year. I'd be very surprised if your 3rd year performance was fine, and then you ran into these problems in 4th year. I assume that you did not participate in the match this year, because your school had concerns about your performance.

In any case, advice:

1. Going to the carib is no easy path. You will still need to disclose this termination on your residency applications. PD's are unlikely to believe that you were targeted / treated unfairly in medical school, since that honestly doesn't happen often. One of the nice things about clinical rotations is that each one is seperate -- you get new evaluators, new course directors, and often a whole new clinical site to rotate in. PD's are going to owrry that whatever problem you had in medical school will become a problem again in residency.

2. Clinical rotations from the carib schools are no cake walk. You'll mostly be on your own, trying to arrange rotations, etc.

3. It doesn't seem from your post that you agree that you have a problem. If you do, it's certain to continue to affect your performance.

4. You're unlikely to get into the "top" carib schools, which will make getting a residency spot more difficult

That being said, your only chance of continuing your medical training would be through the carib, or by getting reinstated to your medical school. The latter is far superior.

Overall, what you need most is to find someone there whom you trust implicitly, and have them review your performance with you. You need to hear the truth, even if it hurts.
 
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I can't imagine them dismissing you just for being strange. Something doesn't add up.
 
Agree trying to get reinstated at your school is going to be far better. There must be something going on with your interactions with people, and you need to figure out what it is. Yes, people can be vindictive and judgmental but ultimately you have to be able to play nice w/people in the hospital, including nurses, patients, and attendings and other residents. So you have to figure out what it is about what you are doing that is irking them...ask your school for help with this...swallow your pride and see if there is any way they will take you back.
 
I knew of a student that this happened to when I was in residency. He rotated with us on several core and elective rotations when I was an intern and PGY-2 (I did my residency at a large, well-known University-based program). Similarly, he passed Step 1 and was fully in clerkship mode.

In his case, there was a serious mental disorder that came to light during rotations. Among other things, it was clear that he couldn't take direction, was argumentative, couldn't handle being "pimped", didn't know his patients, etc. I'm not sure what the exact diagnosis was, but if I recall correctly later I'd heard it was along the schizoaffective spectrum. It can be difficult sometimes to transition from the classroom to the wards.

I recall one incident that still clearly sticks out in my mind. During a "brown bag" lunch, I was reviewing cases with the students, most of whom were interacting in a question-and-answer format. It was a mixed lecture and case review. He just sat there staring ahead with a completely blank look on his face. He ate his lunch, got up, and just walked out in the middle of the session. He hadn't asked for or been excused. No one saw him the rest of the day. Not long thereafter I'd heard that he'd been released from the school.

It was unfortunate. But, in his case, it became clear based on his behavior pattern that he was unsafe to practice clinical medicine.

Sometimes people have real mental health issues, some of which come to finally come to light within this age range. It's not always a matter of "being honest with oneself" as often the affected person has little or no insight. I'm sure that, although it doesn't happen frequently, it happens enough. And, I'm equally certain that medical school committees and advisors wrestle with such decisions more than we can ever know.

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To the OP:

You really need to figure out why they wrote those concerns on your evals (doesn't communicate well with attendings/residents, awkward to watch, etc...) Skills like communication are very important in clinical medicine. Its how potential errors in patient care are avoided. You said there were no professional issues, but it sounds to me like there were. You really need to do some introspection and figure out whether your temperament is suitable for medicine. And since this was from multiple attendings/residents, there was definitely a pattern.

Oh, and if you still want a career in medicine, getting reinstated at your former med school is your best shot. Going to the Caribbean will not help you as you will have two strikes against you while applying for residency: termination from a US med school and being an IMG. There is already a stigma against US IMGs from the Caribbean, fair or not. Termination from a US med school on top of that is the coup d' grace that will land your residency application at the bottom of the pile.
 
You really need to do some introspection and figure out whether your temperament is suitable for medicine.

I think we understand what you're saying here, but this was more to my point...

It's not always a matter of "being honest with oneself" as often the affected person has little or no insight.

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