Evaluated By Wrong Attending

[sunnysnow7]

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Hey All -

I recently received an evaluation from my first rotation. It appears that it was written by the wrong attending -- he was present at the site, but I never worked with him.

I addressed this with the Director of Rotations, and he told me that my attending was relatively new and doesn't have access to the computer system yet. That being the case, I would have to accept the evaluation from the other attending. He gave me a pretty lukewarm review. He left one comment ("Professional") and gave me a Pass. The students that he actually worked with received Honors and glowing comments, in spite of the fact that they worked far fewer hours than I did on this particular rotation.

I'm fairly confident that my attending would have rated me "Honors" and offered some meaningful comments/feedback. I'm wondering if I should pursue this further and see if I can somehow get an evaluation from my attending.

I certainly don't want to stir the pot or come across as a whiner. However, this rotation was in my field of interest, and I'm concerned that a high pass will really hurt my residency application. Plus, it seems pretty silly to have an evaluation from someone who you never even spoke with.

Any thoughts or suggestions are appreciated. Thanks!

 

[DBV]

I would definitely stir the pot if it was my chosen field. But then again I like stirring the pot.

 

[IslandStyle808]

I am supremely shocked a clinical director is allowing a comment from a physician who had almost zero contact with you to be on your 3rd year transcript. I would be stirring the pot on this, but this an opinion from a year 2 student.

 

[Doctor-S]

I don't prepare an evaluation for a student with whom I have not worked/supervised in a meaningful capacity.

You deserve an evaluation from *your* attending. It does not take a long time to gain access to a computer. Just saying.

Have you considered discussing this matter with your attending?

 

[deleted480308]

I don't prepare an evaluation for a student with whom I have not worked/supervised in a meaningful capacity.

You deserve an evaluation from *your* attending. It does not take a long time to gain access to a computer. Just saying.

Have you considered discussing this matter with your attending?

Agreed, if your attending thought you were mediocre stirring the pot is a bad idea

 

[sunnysnow7]

Thanks for the responses. I'm glad to hear that I'm not being unreasonable about this situation.

I texted my attending and he was pretty surprised. He said that he never received an evaluation form and would be happy to complete one for me, even if it meant filling out a hard copy on paper.

We had a great relationship and he gave me very positive feedback throughout the rotation, so I think I would receive Honors if he were to do my evaluation. I hate to go above he head of the Director of Rotations, but I suppose it might be necessary in this situation.

 

[AcademicNeurosurgery]

Thanks for the responses. I'm glad to hear that I'm not being unreasonable about this situation.

I texted my attending and he was pretty surprised. He said that he never received an evaluation form and would be happy to complete one for me, even if it meant filling out a hard copy on paper.

We had a great relationship and he gave me very positive feedback throughout the rotation, so I think I would receive Honors if he were to do my evaluation. I hate to go above he head of the Director of Rotations, but I suppose it might be necessary in this situation.

Do it. You're not going above anyone - you cannot be evaluated by someone who didn't interact with you for a substantial length of time. At my institution, rotation directors did not evaluate students - they merely read evaluations from front-line attendings and made interpretations to assign a final grade.

 

[Planes2Doc]

Stir the pot. This was not reasonable on their part, especially for a third year rotation. Had it been during your fourth year after the MSPE letter, then I would leave it alone.

Anyway, this has gotten me in the mood for some soup. Yum.

 

[bannie22]

get used to it. this is third year.

 

[Light at end of tunnel]

Was it a good evaluation?

 

[mvenus929]

That being said... our residency program has several departments who do group evaluations every month, and they are all put in under the same persons name. For cardiology, it's the department secretary, for endo, it's the senior most physician who doesn't actually work on the wards anymore (where the bulk of the evaluations come from), in our nurseries and NICU, it's an attending who works with us fairly frequently. So it might not be outside the realm of normal in some places to receive such an evaluation.

That said, it doesn't sound like that is the case for you, and I hope you can get a proper evaluation on your file.

 

[Kayta]

You can also ask your advisor for advice/assistance in getting the Coordinator to send a second evaluation.

 

[sliceofbread136]

That is simply not acceptable for multiple reasons. Your director of rotations is not doing his job here and you should go over his head if he continues to refuse to do it.

 

[werd]

agree with what some others have said. if it's not worked out after discussing with the attending in question, you should bring it to the attention of the dean for your med school. being evaluated by someone you didn't work with for technical reasons is almost certainly a violation of your school's own evaluation policy. (on the other hand, if you worked with both attendings but one more than the other, then you should not pursue the issue.)

 

[CTFellowMD]

Stir the pot.

See if your attending can remedy the situation on his own (ie: removal of the inappropriate eval and replacement with his eval. Just getting a second eval is not enough, the first needs to go.)

If not, go to the dean of your school or whoever is ultimately in charge of 3/4th year clinical rotations. Keep accurate documentation of all interaction (email, texts, verbal conversations) with those involved at the rotation site.

 

[DropMets]

How stupid are your clerkship people?

No, seriously. Something doesn't add up. They said he had no access to computer, but he says he never even received the evaluation; did nobody discuss with him? Did you ask for one? If he did, did he ask the directors about instructions? If he did, did they mention to him that he can't? Did he inform you? And the other doctor didn't feel odd writing an evaluation for somebody they didn't work with? And the directors thought this made sense? And the directors never thought for a minute that access needs to be granted for attendings you work with in order to write evals, or else you probably shouldn't be working with them because they are not part of the academic team if they can't even write evals?

I ask again: how stupid are your directors? Forget stirring the pot. I'd throw the whole damn pot of water at them until it either knocked some common sense into them, or dislodged their craniums from their rectums.

Serenity now, serenity now.

Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile

 

[sunnysnow7]

Thank you for all the feedback!

It took an inordinate number of phone calls and e-mails, but I was able to get an evaluation from my attending. The original eval from the other attending may or may not be removed. It wasn't a terrible evaluation, so I won't fight it. I'm just glad that I'll have an accurate one on file now.