Major discrepancy in evaluations!!! Help!!!

[DocReymundo]

I have a huge problem. During one of my clerkships, I did an outstanding job without any concerns. My attending even offered to write me a letter of recommendation. However, my small group leaders thought the worst of me and I feel like their evaluations may be biased. Prior to the rotation starting, I forgot to respond to an email and missed an orientation. That made a bad impression on my small group leaders. My small group leaders shred to pieces on my final evaluation while my attending wrote the best evaluation I have ever received. Small group leaders failed me. What do I do? I'm in dire need of help?!

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[operaman]

Sounds like you kinda blew off the small group part of the course and their evals accurately reflect the work you did for them. You could try speaking with the clerkship director, but I don't see a way out of this other than to take what's coming to you. Hopefully you won't fail, but depending on how your school does grades, you probably won't be able to honor. You can usually get ONE eval tossed if it's an outlier AND the attending/resident who wrote it can't articulate a good reason for it, but even that is pretty rare. Sounds like the good eval was the outlier in this case. Chalk it up to lesson learned and do better next time.

 

[Serous Demilune]

I know it's off topic, but I still can't wrap my head around TBL during clerkships. At what point in our training do we stop being treated as if we're in kindergarten? Chief resident?

 

[deleted480308]

you missed a meeting and are surprised it damaged your evaluation? you are an adult, take your lumps and do better next time

 

[SouthernSurgeon]

Unfortunately you don't get to cherry pick the good from the bad, especially when (from the extremely limited details you've given us) it appears your small group leaders had good reason to knock your performance.

I had one similar case where one attending gave me fantastic evals and the other middling evals. I talked to the clerkship director because I didn't feel that the middling eval accurately reflected on me...she actually agreed completely given her interactions with me...but she said this was a situation where I need to reflect on how others perceive me. She was right and after a little personal reflection and discussion with the attending in question I understood why I got the evaluation I did. And in the long run it didn't matter diddly squat for my graduation or match.

 

[inmyslumber]

I have a huge problem. During one of my clerkships, I did an outstanding job without any concerns. My attending even offered to write me a letter of recommendation. However, my small group leaders thought the worst of me and I feel like their evaluations may be biased. Prior to the rotation starting, I forgot to respond to an email and missed an orientation. That made a bad impression on my small group leaders. My small group leaders shred to pieces on my final evaluation while my attending wrote the best evaluation I have ever received. Small group leaders failed me. What do I do? I'm in dire need of help?!

You messed up. Twice. Talk to your small group leaders. See what you can do to prove you are sincerely sorry and have learned from you mistakes.

First impressions do matter. It is sometimes impossible to overcome these impressions when negative.

 

[DermViser]

I have a huge problem. During one of my clerkships, I did an outstanding job without any concerns. My attending even offered to write me a letter of recommendation. However, my small group leaders thought the worst of me and I feel like their evaluations may be biased. Prior to the rotation starting, I forgot to respond to an email and missed an orientation. That made a bad impression on my small group leaders. My small group leaders shred to pieces on my final evaluation while my attending wrote the best evaluation I have ever received. Small group leaders failed me. What do I do? I'm in dire need of help?!

You have small group stuff during an MS-3 clerkship? Is it like teaching or something?

 

[DermViser]

Unfortunately you don't get to cherry pick the good from the bad, especially when (from the extremely limited details you've given us) it appears your small group leaders had good reason to knock your performance.

I had one similar case where one attending gave me fantastic evals and the other middling evals. I talked to the clerkship director because I didn't feel that the middling eval accurately reflected on me...she actually agreed completely given her interactions with me...but she said this was a situation where I need to reflect on how others perceive me. She was right and after a little personal reflection and discussion with the attending in question I understood why I got the evaluation I did. And in the long run it didn't matter diddly squat for my graduation or match.

So was it a personality issue? I'm curious what lesson you were supposed to learn if the attending and the clerkship director were fine interacting with you, while one attending didn't. Are you just supposed to know when to change your personality for certain people or were their warning signs during the clerkship? Genuinely asking.

 

[operaman]

We had small group/didactic stuff during many of my 3rd year rotations -- Surg, medicine, psych, ob, peds. No formal ones on FamMed though we had online didactics to complete. The clerkships differed in whether or not the small group attending would do an eval or not.

 

[SouthernSurgeon]

So was it a personality issue? I'm curious what lesson you were supposed to learn if the attending and the clerkship director were fine interacting with you, while one attending didn't. Are you just supposed to know when to change your personality for certain people or were their warning signs during the clerkship? Genuinely asking.

No, there were definitely things I could have done better. It was early in third year and a big part of it was that this attending really expects students to be proactive and I was a little too nervous/timid at the time. He gave me some really helpful feedback and advice that I think carried forward into my future clerkships.

 

[Kaustikos]

I have a huge problem. During one of my clerkships, I did an outstanding job without any concerns. My attending even offered to write me a letter of recommendation. However, my small group leaders thought the worst of me and I feel like their evaluations may be biased. Prior to the rotation starting, I forgot to respond to an email and missed an orientation. That made a bad impression on my small group leaders. My small group leaders shred to pieces on my final evaluation while my attending wrote the best evaluation I have ever received. Small group leaders failed me. What do I do? I'm in dire need of help?!

It happens. Believe me, it happens. There's nothing to do but brush it off. One failed eval won't fail your course. The truth of the matter is that some people just take things personally regardless of your intentions. Coming from someone who went to a discussion/class that was taught by my attending and had it backfire... He'd told me in clinic while pimping me that I wasn't assertive/confident enough in my answers and that needed to change. So... we have discussion/lecture and I do just that. He apparently meant something completely different because he failed me on my evaluation saying I was too argumentative/defensive/condescending in discussions. So, yeah, it happens. I also got a bad eval from another attending for my shoes.
Honestly, I've been surprised. I thought I was going to get failed evaluations during my Peds inpatient month... I felt like an idiot/depressed/miserable because of how I performed during that month. I thought they all hated me. I didn't even read my evaluation for Peds until a month ago... and this is what I saw -

Was an active team member and hard working student who showed significant interest in his patients and in expanding his medical knowledge. He took ownership of his patients and was willing to offer his own plans. Overall, he was a pleasure to have on the team. Showed great interest and skill in working with kids and would be an excellent fit for a pediatrics residency. I think he did very well for his stage and I anticipate that he will grow at a great trajectory. I have to mention that I gave him a short reading assignment and he took it very seriously In fact he put together a fantastic handout with some evidence based graphs on the material - and this was in a matter of 3 hours. I was very impressed. Good attitude and work ethic. Always willing to stay late to see patients and provide care. H&P's and presentations were well done.
Able to put child at ease- talked on a level that family could understand. Completed physical diagnosis rounds. Nice discussion of causes of acute on chronic kidney injury. This was his first inpatient month, so he naturally required guidance to perform his basic functions on the team. His presentations improved over the course of the rotation so that by the end they were almost always complete and usually in the right order. He showed an active interest in his patients and worked to build rapport with them outside of medicine by playing games and visiting after rounds.

True story - I don't remember that presentation on acute/chronic kidney injury... But I definitely remember that presentation on HLH....

 

[VisionaryTics]

I didn't even read my evaluation for Peds until a month ago... and this is what I saw -



True story - I don't remember that presentation on acute/chronic kidney injury... But I definitely remember that presentation on HLH....

That is the wordiest damn eval I've ever seen. I think my psych eval was one sentence, my surgery eval two, peds two, ob/gyn two.

 

[SouthernSurgeon]

His presentations improved over the course of the rotation so that by the end they were almost always complete and usually in the right order.

 

[Kaustikos]

That is the wordiest damn eval I've ever seen. I think my psych eval was one sentence, my surgery eval two, peds two, ob/gyn two.

That's how all my evaluations are. God forbid I ever share my OB/GYN evaluation.... You want wordy/bitchy.

What? We all suck at presenting at the beginning of third year. And considering I was doing peds nephrology as my first inpatient... it wasn't exactly easy to be right in your A/P 100%. lol

 

[Helen Wheels]

That is the wordiest damn eval I've ever seen. I think my psych eval was one sentence, my surgery eval two, peds two, ob/gyn two.

My Gen Surg eval was ZERO sentences. Yep, the surgeon left the narrative comment sections totally blank and just filled in the numerical scores.

 

[Kaustikos]

My Gen Surg eval was ZERO sentences. Yep, the surgeon left the narrative comment sections totally blank and just filled in the numerical scores.

Well, if the numbers are good, then that isn't the worst thing in the world. Sometimes I'd rather no comments.

 

[Helen Wheels]

Well, if the numbers are good, then that isn't the worst thing in the world. Sometimes I'd rather no comments.

Yeah, it was a good grade (98%) so I don't really care. However, I think thoughtful comments can be useful feedback for improving performance and/or knowing what it was you did well.