Clinicals vs. grades

[honey0102]

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[differentiating]

Do shelves matter for anything at your school? You may only need to pass, in which case your clinical grade is more important.

 

[honey0102]

Do shelves matter for anything at your school? You may only need to pass, in which case your clinical grade is more important.

Yes, they're a portion of our grade. We are Honors/High Pass/Pass/Fail

 

[NickNaylor]

Have you already gone to the clinic during one of these half-days off? If not, you mind remind him/her that you are expected to be "elsewhere" during that afternoon to politely try and get that time off.

 

[mrbreakfast]

he school gives us one half day off a week in this rotation

You're working weekends on an outpatient clinic? If so, I'd try to get out of the extra time. If not, I'd spend the extra few hours to get that H, especially if this is a specialty of interest.

 

[honey0102]

Have you already gone to the clinic during one of these half-days off? If not, you mind remind him/her that you are expected to be "elsewhere" during that afternoon to politely try and get that time off.

Thanks-might just do that-the issue is pretty sure all these attendings know our school gives us said afternoon off, but will still try

 

[honey0102]

You're working weekends on an outpatient clinic? If so, I'd try to get out of the extra time. If not, I'd spend the extra few hours to get that H, especially if this is a specialty of interest.

No the afternoon off isn't a weekend. We get it off as protected study time. Our peds rotation here is intense with extra school-mandated assignments too, maybe that is why.

 

[Angus Avagadro]

To score Honors means just that. Doing more than the minimum, not just getting a good score on the shelf exam at the end of the month. If scoring Honors is important enough, then you should strongly consider paying the price. If not, consider taking the time off or declining assignments.

 

[differentiating]

Yes, they're a portion of our grade. We are Honors/High Pass/Pass/Fail

I meant more whether the score on the shelf matters vs just passing it - at my school, clinical grades were weighted much more than shelves, to the point where you just had to get a passing score on the shelf to be eligible for honors.

That being said - the assignments are perfectly reasonable, but asking you to come in during protected time is not. However, when this happened to me, I typically just went in because I didn’t feel comfortable arguing with the attending, so I can’t advise you on how to get out of it without jeopardizing your grade. I just studied during downtime.

 

[honey0102]

I meant more whether the score on the shelf matters vs just passing it - at my school, clinical grades were weighted much more than shelves, to the point where you just had to get a passing score on the shelf to be eligible for honors.

That being said - the assignments are perfectly reasonable, but asking you to come in during protected time is not. However, when this happened to me, I typically just went in because I didn’t feel comfortable arguing with the attending, so I can’t advise you on how to get out of it without jeopardizing your grade. I just studied during downtime.

Nope, our rotation is not as such-shelf matters a lot, with different cut offs for pass, high pass, honors, etc
I guess after reading the replies on this post the general consensus does seem to be to go in during the protected time. Still concerned about not having enough time for shelf but I guess there's no real way around this and I can just do my best. I too am not at all comfortable arguing with an attending

 

[deleted645092]

Unfortunately it's not likely that you're going to get that attending to reduce your workload without it jeopardizing your grade. As mentioned above the whole point of honors is that you went above and beyond relative to the other students.

If your rotation/ preceptor is any good then you should be learning your shelf material while you're there as a part of your day-to-day responsibilities, so you shouldn't have to worry about dedicated study time for the shelf.

 

[mistafab]

If the school gives you the time off, then this attending is a real douche forcing you to stay. You should listen to your attending and do what he/she says though for your grade. Remind them that the school is giving you it off, and if they don’t give it to you, then report it.

The HW assignments are fair game though.

 

[ciestar]

Protected time is just that, protected time. On several rotations Ive had residents have it as well and they are excused too. If he won’t let you off, have your school send a friendly reminder about this.

As far as extra assignments.. welcome to third year.

 

[honey0102]

The extra assignments stuff is something we all deal with on one rotation or another. Sometimes they are really helpful assignment, other times not. But it sounds like your attending sounds actually cares about your education since he is taking extra time after his work to teach you, so that's good.

For the half day, say that you guys have protected time for the other educational obligations of the rotation. When we had stuff like that neither I nor anyone I know got push back from the attending. Also did you tell him you had a half day and he said that he would like you to come in anyways or did he say "you should come in Monday afternoons" and you were too afraid to say that you have that time off?

If you tell him that you have educational obligations on those half day and he still pressures you into coming, you should let your clerkship director know after your rotation is finished. They will reach out to preceptors to give them a heads up that it is protected time, so that other students aren't put in the same position. One extra half day in a clinic will not make you a better doctor, but having a strong knowledge foundation will.

He knew I had that afternoon off. He still told me to come in because "practice makes perfect" which is true-not that I'm particularly struggling more than any other student-but it's just about balancing clinicals vs studying now. Thanks, that is a good idea