Anyone else have a horrible rotation experience?

[Zeekk]

My 3rd year of pharmacy school I felt overloaded with information, especially from oncology and ID. Worst I didn't prioritize understanding HT/dyslipidemia/diabetes. I failed my first rotation, the reason given by the preceptor was I wasn't ready, and my other rotations would only be harder. I had to do med recs for patients and give instructions, this not an area I shine at. I passed my other rotations, but by far the one I didn't pass was the hardest. The review for my first rotations was the length of an essay and It just included anything I did or said. The objective things were being late. The preceptor wanted me to memorize a lot of things and I couldn't do it, and still don't think I could today. If I had to take that rotation now I still don't think I would pass, which makes me doubt myself.

There was also someone there who knew my previous employer and my preceptor contacted my previous employer, which I thought was strange. I don't have many friends in the pharmacy community and haven't shared my experience with many people. From rotations I feel like I made more enemies than friends.

If you can relate I would like to hear from you. Or if you can give me feedback I would appreciate that.

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[bittersugar600]

You should have asked the upperclassmen about their experience at the site and what they think of the preceptor. Most of the alumni preceptors we have tend to make rotations difficult for other students (I heard this from other students) so I avoided them when choosing my rotation sites. Pharmacy school is already stressful and students should choose sites that won’t increase their anxiety .
The preceptor contacting your previous employer was out of line and you should have reported that to your school.

 

[gwarm01]

I think I've shared this before, but oh well. I had received 4/5 and 5/5 ratings from every rotation. All preceptors claimed I was professional, engaged, hardworking, etc. Not a single negative remark. Then my February retail rotation started. The preceptor was just a couple years out of school and seemed nice, but was apparently secretly a spiteful and vindictive person. She gave me nothing but positive feedback and claimed I was hitting all of my goals. Then I get a call from the dean after the 2-week evaluation. She had graded me as 1/5 and 2/5 in every category, and claimed I was behaving unprofessionally. This was a bit of a shock, considering I had not received any negative feedback or guidance from her.

We had a meeting following that evaluation, and she explains that she grades on a different scale than the school. I tried to get feedback but she didn't really offer anything. I finished my next two weeks much the same as the first, and she passed me with the minimum grade of 3/5. I never saw her again, but I would really, really like to know what I said or did to get on her bad side.

 

[BenJammin]

I had a really really bad preceptor my P4 year who would complete the evaluation in comparison of himself. One of the things we were graded on was "knowledge of current laws and regulations" and I remember him saying "Well I'm not even a 3 on a 1-5 scale so I have to give you a 2". I barely passed that rotation. People were telling me "oh don't worry about rotations it will be a huge GPA boost for you". LOL

 

[Wickett]

I had a really really bad preceptor my P4 year who would complete the evaluation in comparison of himself. One of the things we were graded on was "knowledge of current laws and regulations" and I remember him saying "Well I'm not even a 3 on a 1-5 scale so I have to give you a 2". I barely passed that rotation. People were telling me "oh don't worry about rotations it will be a huge GPA boost for you". LOL

I had an IPPE rotation that went like that. I was assigned to a clinical transplant pharmacist, and by that time, we had barely even covered transplant. I spent maybe 2 hours total with him during the whole rotation, but I tried going above and beyond trying to learn (I wrote up transplant patient SOAP notes on my own accord, tried discussing them with him, reviewed transplant guidelines etc.). I barely got any feedback from him, and certainly nothing negative.

I was shocked when my eval was posted online with all 2/5s, which was a failing grade. His reasoning was that no rising P3 could possibly score above that for something as complicated as transplant. Luckily my school got him to adjust my grade, but he only changed it to the minimum passing grade.