Asking for a friend....

[CaliGal777]

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A friend of mine at her medical school is currently battling Covid19. She is on the mend and is doing better.

She is a bit behind in her coursework. She has supplied all medical documentation to her Pre-Clinical Dean. So far, they have been excused but they are not giving her additional time to make up her coursework. Policy states, they will give 4 weeks to complete all make up activities for a course, and anything beyond that is discretionary. Her doctors have written for accommodations in requesting this but it seems to have fall on deaf ears.

The Pre-clinical Dean is not budging on this saying, "have no confidence in your health" to complete the coursework, and that if its not completed by that time period it will turn into an F. If the doctors are willing to eventually sign off on her health, shouldnt that be sufficient and help the student complete the coursework?

My friend has been doing very well academically and like any medical school, policies are being softened up to comply with the current pandemic.

There were students last year that were given time through the summer to complete their coursework due to Covid19.

 

[CaliGal777]

@Goro

would love your input

 

[Hzreio]

How sick was she?? Being more than 4 weeks behind is pretty significant. Are these assignments or just material she needs to learn?

 

[Lost in Translation]

Seems like something to escalate to student affairs and maybe even the Dean of the School depending on how involved he/she is with the students?

 

[deleted1100659]

No confidence in her health to complete the work? Elaborate on this? How sick is she? Is to the point that shes hospitalized or whats going on exactly?

 

[Goro]

A friend of mine at her medical school is currently battling Covid19. She is on the mend and is doing better.

She is a bit behind in her coursework. She has supplied all medical documentation to her Pre-Clinical Dean. So far, they have been excused but they are not giving her additional time to make up her coursework. Policy states, they will give 4 weeks to complete all make up activities for a course, and anything beyond that is discretionary. Her doctors have written for accommodations in requesting this but it seems to have fall on deaf ears.

The Pre-clinical Dean is not budging on this saying, "have no confidence in your health" to complete the coursework, and that if its not completed by that time period it will turn into an F. If the doctors are willing to eventually sign off on her health, shouldnt that be sufficient and help the student complete the coursework?

My friend has been doing very well academically and like any medical school, policies are being softened up to comply with the current pandemic.

There were students last year that were given time through the summer to complete their coursework due to Covid19.

Did the school's policies change since last summer?

If not, the school needs to explain why those kids got some extra slack.

Unfortunately, your fried is playing with fire here and if she can't make up the coursework, it's best to take a LOA.

 

[deleted1079620]

Does your school allow the option to extend your friend’s semester into the summer to allow her to complete the coursework? I would look in the handbook and speak to the MedEd office about an “alternate schedule”. I don’t understand why a school would not be accommodating for a student with all the paperwork compliant with their policies and otherwise in good standing academically.

 

[gyngyn]

We seem to be missing something here.
In any case, an LOA is the solution.

 

[Redpancreas]

OP, I'm sorry your friend is going through this situation. Unfortunately I don't think you're going to get much on here because we don't know:

1.) The extent of her COVID illness and rationale for >4 weeks absence.
2.) The reason for the discrepancy between "doctors have written for accommodations" vs "the preclinical dean ...saying 'have no confidence in your health'".
3.) The extent to which her illness burden is affecting her capacity to perform in medical school. As one can imagine, it's a spectrum and it's not something easily measured and relies on trusting what your friend is saying at face value.
4.) How someone who is presumably <40 and vaccinated x2-3 get sick with COVID to the extent that they can not perform after 4 weeks.

I personally wouldn't divulge that information on behalf of a friend on a public forum so this may be one of those things you have to hash out in person.

I would just say if you feel your friend is being treated unfairly, then you might want to then consider telling them to at least seek legal consult. Afterwards, your friend can weigh the pros and cons of making a legal challenge. Each case is different and unless the whole story is laid bare here on SDN, I doubt we will come to the correct conclusion. My one additional thought is that if she is greater than 4 weeks behind and has substantial illness burden, what is the barrier in her taking a leave of absence and starting in the next class or some off-cycle variation? Consider that option. Many people in those situations out of their control (injuries, etc.) went that route despite no fault of their own. I think where your friend may get into hot water (as others have stated above) is trying to advocate for remaining on her current course.

Best of luck!

 

[mrbreakfast]

The above posters are correct in saying more details (which you don't have to provide) would be required for definitive advice.

I will just add that I frequently see post-COVID syndrome (which is what you seem to be describing) in clinic, and anecdotally will say patients do not get much in the way of accommodations.

 

[Browns99]

The OP had a similar post about " asking for a friend" with a med ailment...is this the same friend in this situation, now with COVID?

 

[Goro]

The OP had a similar post about " asking for a friend" with a med ailment...is this the same friend in this situation, now with COVID?

Good catch. It's clearly hard to tell:

Asking for my friend.

She has a medical condition that will likely entail her getting a ICD (implantable cardio defib) device. Will this deny her getting a medical license to practice medicine? Should she disclose it? It is understood that she cant do radiology due to the magnets and what not.

Hi there,

I just got diagnosed with a intellectual disability diagnosis where the psychologist has requested accommodations for me including visual aids, extra time on assignments/quizzes/exams, continually speaking with a learning strategist, movement breaks, reduced testing distraction to test in a quiet low stimuli environment, etc.

My psychiatrist and psychologist both approve of these accommodations, and now want to get me medicated a well known stimulant. In grad school, I got decent grades, but I was always behind, stressed where my chronic illness would get worse and my immune system would become a crapshoot (more than it already is) and Id end up in the ER with a pneumonia of some kind. This rendered me to get many medical leaves over the years.

Although my psychologist wants more testing to completely rule out ADHD, she has said I have an executive function disorder that has only gotten worse due to my chronic medical condition from the frontal lobe where inattentiveness, loose focus, procrastination, difficulty completing tastes, planning, organizing my daily tasks.

There is documented evidence over the years that kids who have had my lifelong chronic illness end up having these intellectual issues as adults and get masked over the years.

I also have other accommodations in process to help my chronic illness including requesting certain parking spots near academic buildings. I should mention my medical team has cleared me for school with the requested accommodations.

My fear is when I present this to my school, will they kick me out or say I cannot do the program?

I had COVID earlier this year and it put me behind where I have to now take a computed based anatomy exam. I understand that this is what the school is offering because they have to set up for the next block, but how would you feel about this?

They gave me a running list of videos, resources, and books from which they will pull images from and have said they will have the same distribution of first, second, and third order questions to what was given to the class....

How would you feel about this?

 

[Hzreio]

The OP had a similar post about " asking for a friend" with a med ailment...is this the same friend in this situation, now with COVID?

Why do y’all care to do this investigation on random strangers on the internet lol

 

[Browns99]

Why do y’all care to do this investigation on random strangers on the internet lol

It's only because members are taking their own time to provide responses in hopes of helping people, so when there are potential red flags or the post seems to possibly lack credible or missing information, it needs to be questioned, nothing more, nothing less.

This poster in particular had a prior post with questions about a "friend" with health issues, he/she then posted about health issues with himself and then yet another one with asking about a friend falling behind because of health issues.

Now, if the OP are asking these questions that are actually about himself but seems more comfortable speaking in 3rd person, I guess there's nothing wrong with that, but more info would be warranted.

 

[Redpancreas]

It's only because members are taking their own time to provide responses in hopes of helping people, so when there are potential red flags or the post seems to possibly lack credible or missing information, it needs to be questioned, nothing more, nothing less.

This poster in particular had a prior post with questions about a "friend" with health issues, he/she then posted about health issues with himself and then yet another one with asking about a friend falling behind because of health issues.

Now, if the OP are asking these questions that are actually about himself but seems more comfortable speaking in 3rd person, I guess there's nothing wrong with that, but more info would be warranted.

Exactly, risking carpal tunnel for this crap.

 

[GoSpursGo]

For all the angst about details we're not getting, I ultimately don't think it matters. The course of action is clear--escalate to a higher authority to see if the student can get further accommodations. If further accommodations cannot be made, then the student needs to take a medical LOA, period.

While the student's physician can make a recommendation, unless there is a concern that the student is being discriminated against or is not having the same accommodations given to other students (very difficult to prove), ultimately how these things are handled depends on the student handbook and the discretion of the school.

 

[Hzreio]

It's only because members are taking their own time to provide responses in hopes of helping people, so when there are potential red flags or the post seems to possibly lack credible or missing information, it needs to be questioned, nothing more, nothing less.

This poster in particular had a prior post with questions about a "friend" with health issues, he/she then posted about health issues with himself and then yet another one with asking about a friend falling behind because of health issues.

Now, if the OP are asking these questions that are actually about himself but seems more comfortable speaking in 3rd person, I guess there's nothing wrong with that, but more info would be warranted.

Why does it matter whether the person in question is the friend or not?

 

[Goro]

Why does it matter whether the person in question is the friend or not?

Honesty is a likeable trait. If the OP was worried about confidentiality, there's always the CC forum.

 

[Hzreio]

Everybody lies

 

[Browns99]

Everybody lies

So, that makes it right? I guess we know where you stand when it comes to honestly, that is unless you believe it's ok for everyone else to lie and not you..

 

[Redpancreas]

For all the angst about details we're not getting, I ultimately don't think it matters. The course of action is clear--escalate to a higher authority to see if the student can get further accommodations. If further accommodations cannot be made, then the student needs to take a medical LOA, period.

While the student's physician can make a recommendation, unless there is a concern that the student is being discriminated against or is not having the same accommodations given to other students (very difficult to prove), ultimately how these things are handled depends on the student handbook and the discretion of the school.

I agree. The next step's pretty obvious. If we want to give OP any advice outside of that specific to their case, we'd need all the details to come to an accurate conclusion.

 

[Hzreio]

So, that makes it right? I guess we know where you stand when it comes to honestly, that is unless you believe it's ok for everyone else to lie and not you..

You can make all the assumptions you want about me, but at the end of the day it’s the internet chill lol

 

[homunculusus]

The OP had a similar post about " asking for a friend" with a med ailment...is this the same friend in this situation, now with COVID?

Is this the same "friend" that was kicked out of med school previously and is now restarting at a different school?