Clerkship Eval Rant + Letter for Appeal - PLEASE HELP

[bubblebear]

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Hi fellow SDNers, I'm bubblebear, a 3rd year who naively thought clinical experience was gonna be awesome as overall a great learning experience...until I started my Peds core clerkship....when I realized it's a game which residents/interns use to their advantage....where interpersonal conflicts arise and ultimately backstabs innocent students.

Long story short, my fellow classmates, few more experienced, had approached our clerkship coordinator the residents' ineptness in teaching and organizing during the middle of our in-patient month, and the complaints were later directly addressed. Unfortunately, I feel that some residents mistook the message and misdirected their rage at me.

Recently I've received my eval, and when I read it for the first time, I was like "what the ....!!!!". Not only I was evaluated by ppl whom i had never worked with and most of the ppl I've establsihed relationship with never got to evaluate me. I was misquoted and misrepresented, the patient examples they've given in the evaluation were actually patients I've never picked up or presented. Basically they made the eval sounds like "we've taught her and guided her all the time, but she does not demonstrate any understanding of basic concepts", just to show that they had demonstrated interest in teaching, and they blame their students for not being able to show it (while in fact, the total opposite happened, during the whole clerkship, the students were always left behind by residents, who were too busy in figuring out their own schedules and stressing out over management issues.)

while I was browsing through SDN, I feel that other have similar experiences, being beaten up by the random yet highly subjective process. http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=150061
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=153017

After giving this a thought for almost a week, I've decided that I should bring this matter at least to the attention of the clerkship director, if not my own advising dean. I want to write a more formal letter for appeal (or an informal email message stating my intent). I don't want to sound too whining or demanding but I really need to have this unfair, totally biased eval be changed, or for the least, to have someone higher in the ladder to hear me out. Now I'm just so lost as I have no idea how to even start the letter. I'm pulling my hair out in bundles and I can't figure how I can sound polite without stating "(so and so) sucks, is irrational and being revengeful".

Any ideas will be great, I really really need your help. 🙁 🙁 🙁 🙁 🙁

Please......

 

[daisygirl]

Make an appointment with the clerkship director so that you can present your case to him/her. I don't think that it is wise to discuss this with a dean, at least not as of yet. Following the chain of command is wise (IMHO of course).

Just recently, I had a friend who was in a similar situation (meaning that she was disgruntled with eval). Her situation was different in that she received an overall glowing eval, however, the last sentence in the eval was completely inappropriate. She was quite upset, and she addressed her concerns with the clerkship director. It turned out that someone who spent FIFTEEN minutes with her wound up evaluating her in a negative light (how in the world can someone feel comfortable enough evaluating a student if they only spent fifteen minutes with the person 😡 ). Anyhow, the course director agreed that the comment was not appropriate given the lack of interaction, and subsequently deleted the sentence from her permanent record.

If you find that the clerkship director is unresponsive to your concerns, then make an appointment with the dean. Good luck

 

[roja]

Follow the chain of command. If you are going to try and change a system, you have to work within it. You definately should present your case.


good luck

 

[Maya_RS]

I think you have a legitimate issue to raise with your clerkship director. If you've been misquoted and misrepresented, the eval you received is very inappropriate. I agree with following the chain of command suggested by everyone else and only going to the dean only after discussing this with your clerkship director. Good luck!!!

 

[phoenixsupra]

Welcome to a VERY political world. It sucks but you'll have to find a more efficient way to deal than running to teacher and throwing the book at everyone. If that seems harsh then I apologize. I don't offer this to try and hurt you feelings. But the adult world resembles the playground way more than the schoolhouse. What you are experiencing is reality. What I'd advise is for you to talk "off the record" to a resident you like (not one on your present rotation) and ask for some advise on how to deal with it. This game has MANY unspoken rules. You do need to learn them. 😉

 

[NurseyK]

OMG! I felt like I was reading my own story here for a minute....

I had a HUGE problem with my first of two IM rotations MSIII year. I got along well with the Interns (went out for drinks a lot, etc), and was basically ignored by the Attendings and upper level Residents (with one Attending even saying to me that, "Your education isn't my problem." 😱 ). Long-story-short, I tried to work my a$$ off as much as anyone would let me; the "team" would regularly forget I existed during the day -- and if I went to go find anyone or try to help to do tasks I would get, "Go away, we don't need you." Bottom line, I found myself with 8 failing evals from people I never handed evals to (including some from people that had dealt with me for mere minutes -- I'm not kidding here). I immediately, politely, in private, talked to each and every evaluator and told them what grade they gave me and "was that the grade you meant to give me?" in attempts to help save face. Can I tell you that every one of them said, "yep, I meant to give you a (40%, 60%, etc)." Mind you, I'm a former nurse, have performed without any problems on my other clinicals, in medschool and even on COMLEX ....HELLO???? I "don't know what I'm doing when I see patients"? I have a "poor knowledge base?" I "can't write an appropriate daily note?" I "can't perform a basic H&P?" (Honest, I'm not kidding here.) SOOOOO, I called up my Clinical Ed Dept who tells me to just suck it up and that my next IM rotation will just "even it out". WTF??? I called the Dean of my school and relayed the entire conversation, faxed her the evals, along with my 5 page "log" of sh*tty treatment I was getting from that Hospital from Day 1 -- then I waited for a callback (I just wanted the grade higher than failing and to get the papal dispensation to get the heck out of that sh*tty hospital). She called me back after talking to Clinical Ed (read: ripping them a new one, per my friends who witnessed the Dean actually going into the Clin Ed Dir office and hearing harsh tones coming from behind the door) and my grade was magically "fixed" to a passing grade that was recoverable when added to my 2nd IM rotation.

What's the moral of the story? If you regularly have gotten decent evals, and this Hospital's evals seem so far out of your "norm" to be ridiculous (only you can *honestly* answer this), then DO something about it! Follow your school's chain of command for grievances. The worst thing that will happen is that the evals/grade won't get changed -- but at least you know you tried.


Best of luck.

Kat

 

[Jalby]

I had a very similar but vastly different result, of which I am extremely pissed at my school for. I wanted to challenge a clinical eval from one of my residents who told me I was the best student of the group but when I got the eval the numbers didn't add up to honors (mostly because the resident was never told that you need 37 out of 40 points for honors) I asked the Nurse educator how to do this, and she told me the wrong way (write a letter to the resident) I did this, and she read me the riot act and then e-mailed me a different way (Write a letter to the resident, but give it to the clerkship office) The next day, she called me up and again yelled at me and told me that she never told me to do any of this stuff (regardless of the fact I had e-mails of her telling me this) and told me I was going to be written for unprofessional behavior. I told her this is rediculous and I was going to report her to the dean of students.

Well, the e-mail she wrote 2 minutes after I left the office beat me to the deans office (who wasn't even there) and despite the fact I had e-mail proof from the nurse educator telling me three different methods for appealing my grade, both the Dean and the Clerkship director told me it didn't matter. The clerkship director basically told me that she didn't care what was in the e-mails and if I press it more, she would lower my grade to a Pass. Needless to say, I have given up all faith in my school and realized that people in power at these places are politicians, and nothing more. Rather than what was doing what is right, they did what was easy and appeased the nurse educator despite the fact I had written proof that she told me the different ways to challenge a clinical grade.

 

[phoenixsupra]

OMG! I felt like I was reading my own story here for a minute....

I had a HUGE problem with my first of two IM rotations MSIII year. I got along well with the Interns (went out for drinks a lot, etc), and was basically ignored by the Attendings and upper level Residents (with one Attending even saying to me that, "Your education isn't my problem." 😱 ). Long-story-short, I tried to work my a$$ off as much as anyone would let me; the "team" would regularly forget I existed during the day -- and if I went to go find anyone or try to help to do tasks I would get, "Go away, we don't need you." Bottom line, I found myself with 8 failing evals from people I never handed evals to (including some from people that had dealt with me for mere minutes -- I'm not kidding here). I immediately, politely, in private, talked to each and every evaluator and told them what grade they gave me and "was that the grade you meant to give me?" in attempts to help save face. Can I tell you that every one of them said, "yep, I meant to give you a (40%, 60%, etc)." Mind you, I'm a former nurse, have performed without any problems on my other clinicals, in medschool and even on COMLEX ....HELLO???? I "don't know what I'm doing when I see patients"? I have a "poor knowledge base?" I "can't write an appropriate daily note?" I "can't perform a basic H&P?" (Honest, I'm not kidding here.) SOOOOO, I called up my Clinical Ed Dept who tells me to just suck it up and that my next IM rotation will just "even it out". WTF??? I called the Dean of my school and relayed the entire conversation, faxed her the evals, along with my 5 page "log" of sh*tty treatment I was getting from that Hospital from Day 1 -- then I waited for a callback (I just wanted the grade higher than failing and to get the papal dispensation to get the heck out of that sh*tty hospital). She called me back after talking to Clinical Ed (read: ripping them a new one, per my friends who witnessed the Dean actually going into the Clin Ed Dir office and hearing harsh tones coming from behind the door) and my grade was magically "fixed" to a passing grade that was recoverable when added to my 2nd IM rotation.

What's the moral of the story? If you regularly have gotten decent evals, and this Hospital's evals seem so far out of your "norm" to be ridiculous (only you can *honestly* answer this), then DO something about it! Follow your school's chain of command for grievances. The worst thing that will happen is that the evals/grade won't get changed -- but at least you know you tried.


Best of luck.

Kat

Wow, I'm sorry you had to go through that. Fleas really HATE a work ethinc. What they seem to like are lazy know-it-alls. 😉