ooops! dropped the ball…recovery strategy?

[epsilonprodigy]

The past few weeks have been a bit of a whirlwind: I basically fell off the grid during boards studying, took the boards, went on vacation, came back and immediately started 3rd year orientation. During orientation week, we all had to run around getting ppds, drug tests, etc., in addition to which my son got sick. In the midst of it all, we were all emailed our preceptors' contact info for rotations. I emailed all 3 preceptors like we were supposed to, and heard back from all 3. Skimming back over the emails today, I realized that one of them said to give him a call, which I totally missed and therefore haven't done. Now it's a holiday weekend, so I feel like a tool calling him when I obviously should have done it before. Options include:

1) Suck it up and call him on Sunday; apologize for the oversight
2) Shoot him another email admitting that I misread his previous email and apologizing, and leave it at that until Monday
3) Just show up on Monday and address it then in person
4)????

What would be the best approach? I obviously don't want to kick off the rotation by prattling on about how busy I've been, because it might come off as making excuses.

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[alpinism]

1)

Call him this weekend. Just explain what happened and apologize.

If he wanted you to contact him prior to starting rotations on monday then you should absolutely do that.

 

[HooliganSnail]

First step, breathe......

For the most part, the expectations of any medical students are pretty low. This is both a good and bad thing.

In your predicament, it is a good thing. You would be shocked at how often medical students just don't show up to things. If you are punctual and engaged then you are better than 50% of the class, without knowing a single thing about medicine.

I would just show up Monday ready to work, not mention the phone number, and everything will be just fine.

On the other hand, if your preceptor gave you their phone number, then they are fine with you using it. Consider text message. If you contact them, everything will be fine.

 

[Promethean]

I agree that this isn't going to be a terrible thing, but I would absolutely call no later than Sunday.

Missing that you were supposed to call is understandable, but they will still appreciate a chance to get in touch before the rotation starts.

 

[Brain Bucket]

I'd say send him an email ASAP explaining the situation. In the same email, ask for a convenient time to call him. End it by saying that since it's a weekend, and he might not see your email, that you'll be calling at X time on Y day, unless he sends you a time he'd prefer.