conflicting personalities?

[zao]

I am going to be an MS1 and I had a question about the clinical years. What happens if you don't get along with the doctors you are working with? Don't those people write your letters of recommendation and fill out evaluations? I'm easy to get along with but what if it is a speciality you would like to do residency in? I know a pediatrician who got terrible evaluations from doctor just because he didn't think women should be in medicine. So, all you 3rd and 4th years, does it seem to be a fair process?

 

[fourthyr]

In my opinion, there's three things that contribute to your success as a 3rd yr. Hard work, luck, and getting along with people. You can modify how hard you work. Luck is being the right place at the right time, knowing that random piece of trivia. You can always maximize luck by working hard and having people help you shine.

But, getting along with people 100% of the time is impossible. And when people don't like you, that does play a role in how they grade. If someone likes you, they really want to see you do well. And they'll try to help you out. If someone doesn't like you, they'll knowingly or unknowingly slant your grades against you.

There's a couple ways around this (that worked for me). Work hard, be efficient, trustworthy. No matter if they don't like you...if you know the stuff, the patients, and help out the team ...then there's no legitimate way they can fault you. To avoid pissing off people that you know you don't click with, AVOID them. AVOID them at all costs. Don't see their patients, don't help them, don't hurt them or slow them down. The less contact you have with them, the more they can say "yeah, I barely knew him" or "other people seemed to like him" or "I can't evaluate him".

Remember, every little thing is monitored about you on the wards (at least where I went to school). You do well, and people recognize (even those that can't possibly know). You do poorly or piss someone off or whatever and people will remember this, rumor about it, discuss it, and then it will affect your evaluation.

I've got tons to say about all this, since I studied pretty intensely how things went on the wards. Overall, the above info. proved effective 95% of the time. But, there's no failsafe way against the subjectiveness of medicine and the clinical years. Because, for the rest of your life, it's all about subjectiveness, being part of the team, etc.

gotta run.