A healthy skepticism is not malignant. With few exceptions, I would say most of us who have taken a contrarian view to the OP have done so respectfully and added some additional perspective for discussion. Venting here is almost guaranteed to get feedback that disagrees with you and I would argue that is what makes this forum so valuable.
Those of us who’ve been around a little bit have seen countless examples of stories where a student or resident claimed abuse and malignant behavior but in reality were themselves the problem. For example, there was a psych resident who got some press a couple years back claiming her program fired her for taking time off for her cancer treatment. Sounds horrible right? Thankfully she sued and we eventually got to see her program’s side in public filings and holy crap she seemed like the worst resident ever who should have been canned long before her diagnosis. There was the whole Eugene Gu debacle where he very publicly alleged harassment and mistreatment but then turned out to be full of crap and with a rather seedy track record himself. Then there was the Med student at Case expelled as an MS4 who told a sad story of mistreatment but court filings ultimately showed he had been a tool for a long time and absolutely had it coming.
All this to say: there’s always another side to every story. Hard to say what we would all think if we shadowed OP for a week and witnessed this firsthand. Maybe we would agree it’s excessive. Maybe this attending really is having students scribe and then committing Medicare fraud by billing for those notes without proper attestation and oversight. Or maybe it’s someone who wants to be a good teacher and is doing her best while not realizing it’s A little too much in light of a looming IM shelf exam.
These situations need to be handled carefully not only for OP’s grade, but also because this attending may actually want to be a good teacher and raking her over the coals could turn her into just another checked out doc who gives everyone 3s and ignores students entirely. You’re all going to run into staff who aren’t quite giving you what you need educationally and there’s an art to how you approach giving feedback so they will improve. Done well, I’ve seen kind feedback turn one of the worst teaching attendings ever into one of the best I’ve worked with - almost overnight. Be kind, assume they mean well, and work through the proper channels.
