Evaluations in residency

[Ypo.]

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Who evaluates you in residency and how does this affect your career later on? Just wondering how it changes from medical school.

 

[yaah]

Attendings, perhaps more senior residents depending on your field. Evals are usually less of a big thing though, unless of course your evals show you are deficient in certain areas. I doubt they have a huge impact on your career - although attending opinion can have a big opinion and they will likely be references for you in the future. If you get good evals, it makes the program director's job easier. But it isn't really a competition for grades, if that's what you're asking.

 

[IndyXRT]

The thing that really matters is that your program director certifies that you are capable of practicing independently on your final evaluation. As long as he/she does this, a less-than-glowing eval here or there in your record won't matter.

 

[southerndoc]

The thing that really matters is that your program director certifies that you are capable of practicing independently on your final evaluation. As long as he/she does this, a less-than-glowing eval here or there in your record won't matter.

About the only trouble you will run into is if you have been placed on probation, have professional charges, etc. That will cause trouble with credentialing or licensure.

 

[Ypo.]

Thanks for the info.

So, you get evaluated by attendings. What about by the senior residents?

It sounds much less stressful than evals in M3.

 

[Winged Scapula]

As senior and Chief resident on service, I was required to formally complete evaluations of the junior residents.

When I was a junior resident, the attendings asked me about medical students (who were, on occasion, notorious for treating the intern like crap but kissing up to the Chief and attendings) and the senior residents.

You have the right to see anything in your file and you are able to write a "rebuttal" if there is anything in there that you disagree with. All programs are supposed to have a formal plan of evaluation where these are reviewed, usually with the Program Director. Generally these reviews do not go any further than your file except in the case of academic probation, suspensions, etc. in which case, as noted above, will haunt you on every license and hospital application you complete.

 

[DarthNeurology]

As senior and Chief resident on service, I was required to formally complete evaluations of the junior residents.

When I was a junior resident, the attendings asked me about medical students (who were, on occasion, notorious for treating the intern like crap but kissing up to the Chief and attendings) and the senior residents.

You have the right to see anything in your file and you are able to write a "rebuttal" if there is anything in there that you disagree with. All programs are supposed to have a formal plan of evaluation where these are reviewed, usually with the Program Director. Generally these reviews do not go any further than your file except in the case of academic probation, suspensions, etc. in which case, as noted above, will haunt you on every license and hospital application you complete.

Wow. I wouldn't dream as a student of treating an intern like "crap", usually I felt sorry for interns as a student, who were super busy or on the verge of getting a bad residency eval. Even if an intern didn't do my evals or the chief loved me I didn't feel the need (or right) to be mean to the intern as they were over us as students anyhow . . .

How would a student be mean to an intern? Not get them their coffee fast enough so it would be only lukewarm when they drank it???

I have seen a lot of very whiny residents (in surgery no less) who hated their program and complained about everything, thankfully not me!

But Winged, if such a complainer intern blasted a medical student behind their back who would you believe? Sounds like you gave a student a bad eval based on what an intern said?

I had the choice of who my evals in 3rd and 4th year went to in some cases, i.e. electives, and I always gave them to the attendings I got mostly "in-direct" evals from residents who would put in a good word or compliment in front of attending.

I think interns and some junior residents are a little too close to the competition of medical school to give as unbiased evaluations of students as an attending who has seen dozens of residents and students. Some interns compete with students who are really efficient and are annoyed by students who studied more than them/have a better knowledge base, ah, ahemm . . . "are closer to medical school" than them.

It is easy to bruise an intern's ego because I feel (rather acutely right now!) that that is the steepest part of the learning curve. . .

 

[Winged Scapula]

How would a student be mean to an intern? Not get them their coffee fast enough so it would be only lukewarm when they drank it???

If that were the case, I wouldn't necessarily care about it (and would have a talk with the resident who was asking a student to do personal chores for him). I am referring to situations in which the student is asked to do patient care tasks by the intern and blows them off, refuses to tell the intern about things going on with the patient, etc.

But Winged, if such a complainer intern blasted a medical student behind their back who would you believe? Sounds like you gave a student a bad eval based on what an intern said?

It depends on who it comes from and my assessment of the situation. If I had an intern who I felt was honest and hard working and had a legitimate complaint, then yes, his input is important into a student evaluation. I'd like to think I'm a little more savvy that you imply and can pick up on these situations when they occur. Besides, when I evaluate a student its based on a number of factors, not just what the intern tells me. If the intern tells me something that seems totally out of character for the student, then I need to sit down with the student and try and figure this out which is what mid-rotation informal evaluations were for. I never would give someone a bad evaluation without having talked to them about their poor performance and giving them a chance to rectify the situation. But to ignore the input of someone like the intern who spends a lot of time with the students would be a mistake. Perhaps you had a lot of interns who complained and were unreasonable but that was not my experience. For the most part, I worked with a good group whose input I valued and trusted.

In the most notorious student who exhibited this ype of behavior, even the attendings noticed it without being prompted to.

I think interns and some junior residents are a little too close to the competition of medical school to give as unbiased evaluations of students as an attending who has seen dozens of residents and students. Some interns compete with students who are really efficient and are annoyed by students who studied more than them/have a better knowledge base, ah, ahemm . . . "are closer to medical school" than them.

It is easy to bruise an intern's ego because I feel (rather acutely right now!) that that is the steepest part of the learning curve. . .

You are probably right. We aren't taught in medicine how to teach, how to evaluate and some of the egos don't allow for others to be unbiased. As I noted above, I felt lucky to work with very few residents who felt intimidated by students or felt the need to give someone a bad evaluation because they were annoyed by the student.