Clerkship director thinks negatively of me...what recourse?

[ECkayak]

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So I'm going to keep this relatively simple so no one can identify me from this info...but for details please pm me and I'll be happy to fill you in.

Basically, my clerkship director for the specialty I want to go into thinks that I am unintelligent, untrustworthy, a potential cheater, and just overall a terrible student. No one else in the department, or any other, thinks this, just him and one other professor whom I've only spoken to once. The problem is that he writes the chairman's letter for me and has informed me that he will disclose my mistakes (I did make a couple during the clerkship, both were honest mistakes) and put them in a very negative light to any residency that calls him.

What can I do about this? I am competitive in my specialty with my step 1, and have not had any red flags in med school. I already have a meeting scheduled with the second doctor to clear the air, and with the department head.

Any help is appreciated.

 

[thefritz]

What in the world is a chairman's letter? Screw him, you don't need to have a letter or recommendation from him. Just do a few away rotations and don't flake out like you obviously did on this guy's service and get some good LORs and use those.

 

[Smurfette]

For many fields, you DO need a chairman's letter for residency applications.

The clerkship director writes the chairman's letter, and not the chairman?

 

[ECkayak]

Unfortunately it's a specialty that requires his letter, and he's the main contact for other programs.

 

[ECkayak]

For many fields, you DO need a chairman's letter for residency applications.

The clerkship director writes the chairman's letter, and not the chairman?

Yes, I believe that he writes the letter because the chairman often does not have time to meet and get to know the students. I do have a meeting with the chairman later in September.

 

[Wordead]

You're going to have to find a way to get the guy to like you. Schedule a meeting, blow him, whatever it takes. I'm pretty sure not having a good letter from your home program is a gigantic red flag.

 

[Lolscan]

So I'm going to keep this relatively simple so no one can identify me from this info...but for details please pm me and I'll be happy to fill you in.

Basically, my clerkship director for the specialty I want to go into thinks that I am unintelligent, untrustworthy, a potential cheater, and just overall a terrible student. No one else in the department, or any other, thinks this, just him and one other professor whom I've only spoken to once. The problem is that he writes the chairman's letter for me and has informed me that he will disclose my mistakes (I did make a couple during the clerkship, both were honest mistakes) and put them in a very negative light to any residency that calls him.

What can I do about this? I am competitive in my specialty with my step 1, and have not had any red flags in med school. I already have a meeting scheduled with the second doctor to clear the air, and with the department head.

Any help is appreciated.

Nothing you can do. Except bring it up with your dean.

 

[BurghStudent]

Not an expert on residency apps, but open dialogue is the only way to solve these sorts of matters. Schedule a meeting with him and have an honest, open discussion about it.

 

[Barcu]

As others have said, if you need this letter, you need to arrange a meeting with him and talk it out. I would do this before contacting anyone else. If that is unsuccessful, then you can think about going up the chain of command. However, I wouldn't jump up there yet. It seems odd that he is willing to sabotage your residency chances. I don't know what you did (probably shouldn't mention on these forums either), but you need to make it right.

 

[514901]

Tell him to go eat a dick.

I had an instructor who tried to pull that on me and I pretty much told him what I thought of him.

I know it's medicine and most of us want to fit into the herd and not ruffle feathers but at a certain age and after taking enough BS there's nothing wrong with standing up for yourself and expecting to be treated with basic respect

 

[Wordead]

Tell him to go eat a dick.

I had an instructor who tried to pull that on me and I pretty much told him what I thought of him.

I know it's medicine and most of us want to fit into the herd and not ruffle feathers but at a certain age and after taking enough BS there's nothing wrong with standing up for yourself and expecting to be treated with basic respect

And when your chairman's letter singlehandedly eliminates you from contention for your specialty you can take pride in your balls of steel while you scramble.

 

[514901]

And when your chairman's letter singlehandedly eliminates you from contention for your specialty you can take pride in your balls of steel while you scramble.

Yeah I know it sucks--but I'd still rather live on my own terms than to spend my 30s and 40s sucking cock to get to where I want to be. Better to cash out than to be a little bitch, in my opinion.

This guy was not even an instructor of mine and it was over a different matter. I wanted to beat him up because he was making accusations with no basis and I actually proved legally that I was 100% correct in the argument (and could have pressed charges if I wanted to and recovered significant damages).

 

[calvnandhobbs68]

Yeah I know it sucks--but I'd still rather live on my own terms than to spend my 30s and 40s sucking cock to get to where I want to be. Better to cash out than to be a little bitch, in my opinion.

This guy was not even an instructor of mine and it was over a different matter. I wanted to beat him up because he was making accusations with no basis and I actually proved legally that I was 100% correct in the argument (and could have pressed charges if I wanted to and recovered significant damages).

You can only recover "damages" if you've actually been damaged financially...most academic problems don't fall into that category.

 

[514901]

You can only recover "damages" if you've actually been damaged financially...most academic problems don't fall into that category.

Mine did and you recover damages to your reputation and/or career.

I can understand it if someone in their early 20s, never worked before, has no life experience, and wants badly to kiss an instructor's ass no matter how malevolent the instructor has been, but at a certain age and after enough time in the real world you tire of this sort of bull****.

 

[Pipers]

So I'm going to keep this relatively simple so no one can identify me from this info...but for details please pm me and I'll be happy to fill you in.

Basically, my clerkship director for the specialty I want to go into thinks that I am unintelligent, untrustworthy, a potential cheater, and just overall a terrible student. No one else in the department, or any other, thinks this, just him and one other professor whom I've only spoken to once. The problem is that he writes the chairman's letter for me and has informed me that he will disclose my mistakes (I did make a couple during the clerkship, both were honest mistakes) and put them in a very negative light to any residency that calls him.

What can I do about this? I am competitive in my specialty with my step 1, and have not had any red flags in med school. I already have a meeting scheduled with the second doctor to clear the air, and with the department head.

Any help is appreciated.

I agree with above statements that recommend speaking with this person. Arrange a meeting and discuss what concerns he/she had about your performance. These mistakes seem larger and more serious than basic third year mistakes (in terms of note writing, exam skills, history taking skills, etc). It more sounds like professionalism issues, which generally are forgiven less than skill errors for students.

If this were me, I would approach my Dean of Student Affairs. They aren't curriculum oriented so they don't write the Dean's letter. I also trust this person at my school and he is an amazing student advocate and advisor. This might be option for you, especially if meeting with the person isn't possible or doesn't go as well as you would like it to.

 

[calvnandhobbs68]

Mine did and you recover damages to your reputation and/or career.

I can understand it if someone in their early 20s, never worked before, has no life experience, and wants badly to kiss an instructor's ass no matter how malevolent the instructor has been, but at a certain age and after enough time in the real world you tire of this sort of bull****.

Okay well if you were in medical school it'd be quite a feat to try to recover anything based on supposed damages to your career prospects. Saying "Dr. X made up bad thing about me so I couldn't match into radiology" would never fly because there's no way to prove you would have matched anyway. If you weren't in medical school your situation doesn't have much bearing on this one.

This just particularly annoys me because I see people saying stuff like "I could sue you and recover damages" way more times than there are situations where you could actually get anything out of it. Especially when it comes to academic matters.

 

[rodmichael82]

qldman I think you're going to have to suck it up to him. You need that letter and in good terms to pull off this specialty. He's the only thing in your way and trust me a bad letter from him will end it all.

 

[michaelrack]

qldman I think you're going to have to suck it up to him. You need that letter and in good terms to pull off this specialty. He's the only thing in your way and trust me a bad letter from him will end it all.

I don't think qldman is going to suck it up to anyone. However, ECkayak (the OP), might.