Letter of recommendation who do i talk with to get one?

[HenrikFuture]

First i will list my questions, then the background info

1. Who do i ask in order to get my LoR, can someone help me about what the standard way of getting a LoR is ?
2. In order to make it easier for the doctors providing LoR do i sort of write an outline for the LoR so all they have to do is correct it and sign ?

Hi i have taken a Clinical elective in psychiatry for 2 months.

I specifically asked the university arranging it about how to get my Letter of Recommendation. They sort of wavered around it.

And now my clinical elective is done and all i have is a preceptor evaluation (honors in everything), and a letter of completion.

Now neither of these i think will be particularly handy when applying for a residency, as far as im aware all that i need to upload is proof that i have a clinical elective (i have 2 months) and a letter of recommendation .

Now i have already written the university about this they say they do not provide LoR's and that i have to contact my preceptor. When i contacted my preceptor he answered he would write it but to contact "someone" i never quite catched who was, but that he indeed would write it.

Well now the elective is getting further and further away and i still havent gotten the LoR's.

So all of this to simply ask for help



Thank you for your time, this is not something i am used to so in order to get going and get it done, i am asking for help

Kind regards

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[wolfvgang22]

I always made sure I have the email address of any preceptor. Most often I never had to even ask, it was given to me by my med school before the rotation. If not, then I asked for it.

Last week of rotation, if I knew I did strong work and got along well with the attending I would ask: "Dr. Whoever, I've really enjoyed this rotation and have learned a lot. Would you feel comfortable writing a positive letter of recommendation?"
Most attendings have done this many times before and know how. If the attending is early in their career or not used to having many students, I might tactfully ask if a template might be helpful, as I know it's extra work and they are quite busy. I found that is appreciated but usually unnecessary. I will even provide a stamped, already addressed envelope if I think it will help.
Then, I follow up every two weeks or so with a short, polite email if the letter is not received as expected. If it is clear my emails aren't being read, and the letter is not received, then I will call politely. If it takes more than that, I'm not going to get a good letter from that person irregardless and move on to one of my other three or four back up letter writers.

 

[lymphocyte]

When i contacted my preceptor he answered he would write it but to contact "someone" i never quite catched who was, but that he indeed would write it.

Your preceptor said to do X, but you didn't do X, don't know what X is, and never bothered to find out about X. I'm thinking your next step is to figure out X.