Medical Bad Gap Year Job Experience, Worried my Letter Writer will Contact Medical Schools. What should I do?

[lord999]

I am currently working as a medical scribe at a private practice during my gap year while applying to medical school. I started working there January 2019, but things quickly turned south. The physician has refused to pay overtime for hourly wage employees, has not consistently allowed lunch breaks, has not upheld state mandated paid sick days, and has spoken poorly about employees (past and present) behind their backs and in front of patients. I felt compelled to stay given that I had given my word for a one year commitment and since I had obtained a letter of recommendation from the physician.

Recently, I have become more dissatisfied with this position. The physician has made comments that another employee was undeserving of her medical school acceptance and had made another employee cry while pressuring her about a personal family issue. I voiced my dissatisfaction with the physician about her language and behavior towards her employees and let her know that I would like to resign from this position at the end of March 2020. She was furious that I was abandoning my position (even though I have an email stating that I was starting January 2019 with a minimum one year commitment). Given her past behavior, I am worried now that she will attempt to contact the schools I have been accepted to/will be interviewing at. I would be completely crushed--I have worked tirelessly for this practice and had even helped her daughter with homework without ever saying a word. Is it possible for her to ruin my chances of going to medical school? If she does attempt to contact schools, is there anything I can do (knowing full well that I have done nothing wrong)?

I hate to phrase it this way, but yes, this physician can actually retaliate this way., but it looks much, much worse on the recommender to the point that the Admissions Office staff usually contacts the applicant to request another letter of recommendation. I myself have been contacted out-of-committee from recommenders rescinding their recommendations, and I always make it a point to forward this to the Admissions staff as a process matter, but I do hold it against the recommender as a recommendation should only be written with good knowledge of the applicant in most circumstances (not the form ones that are required of certain positions, but the ones that are personal in nature).

I do not know your circumstances, but in the future, when you resign, you resign immediately with the only time period being what the state prevails on (two weeks usually, but sometimes less). If you have already served your commitment voluntarily, there shouldn't be an issue.

Also if you do find out, I hope you have enough documentation to go to your state's labor board. You do realize that their professional license in many states is put under emergency suspension if the allegations are substantiated well enough for an investigation, right? So you have some leverage as well if you did some homework.

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[Mr.Smile12]

Those of us who are on admissions committees usually take those types of calls with a total grain of salt, especially if there is no proof of true criminal activity. If this physician has done this before, we will generally know and treat those issues appropriately. Yes, this is still a professional community but it's still remarkably small. Unless this physician is a huge donor to the school, move forward and step down as you intended. You probably could try to apply to scribe at a hospital and hopefully get a dramatically different management experience.

My committee would not try to reach out to the applicant to get a new letter of reference. To me that contact is a breach of confidentiality promised by the school regarding the applicant's evaluation. We should technically do due diligence to contact the reference and request that they rescind their recommendation and let the applicant know. If we don't do that for every applicant, we shouldn't do it at all. If a committee does do it, there should be specific criteria that triggers the contact with documentation to show that the policy is adhered to.

 

[MusicDOc124]

If someone felt they worked in such a negative environment, assuming there isn't something else going on in question or anything being suspicious but rather a solid reason (if it even came to the point of questioning), that this is not something I would hold against an applicant for any position or school. Your 1 year is up anyway - I would recommend leaving as stated above with 2 weeks notice, which is the standard for most positions in most states.