Crumby remark in evaluation-does that mean their LOR is bad?

[Analyzethis]

So I worked with this doc for 6 weeks every day in an outpatient clinic-I thought things went great and it was my last rotation of my 3rd year. So when I was putting my apps together I asked them for a LOR-they responded saying they would be extremely pleased to write one etc. I had not got my grade back and remarks on the evals at that point so they wrote the letter. But then I got my evals from the class back and they wrote the following comments-paraphrasiing off the top of my head but something like "student was impressive in the way he dealt with patients and was always at ease with them. Student was well read and knowledgable. If there was something the student could work on-"student was at sometimse "too laid back"--- now what does Too laid back mean??? I honestly thought the rotation went great so was shocked-but when they say something like that-albeit, it was in the section that asked what thing the student could improve on so I am sure they had to write something not so glowing-btu does this mean their LOR would make the same comment or not be great? I do not have an overabundance of LORs so i cannot just throw it out.

My other post I wrote-I have another writer who I had to pester and whos leter was not going to be great in the first place-although she made no negative comments on my eval-so its a tough choice-I am going to throw one of them out but I can only throw one-what do you all think?

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[Anasazi23]

I don't think that's too bad. Some doctors feel that they have to write something in that "negative" spot - otherwise the student can gain no true feedback.

If "too laid back" is the worst thing they can come up with about you...that's not too bad. If anything, it shows that this particular doc was willing to say something negative...which could have been much worse "flippant with patients," "needs to practice documentation," "unprofessional, tardy, inappropriate," etc. would be worse.

He'll likely write an even nicer letter of rec., since he knows what it's for and how you'll use it.

 

[Analyzethis]

Thanks for your reply man-to both my posts! Appreciate the advice-I will talk to my schools dean and see if he can give me a heads up on the letter. We sign a waiver form that says we will not view our letters so that limits us to seeing them but I didnt think about them giving us a heads up. thanks