Feedback generally good except for one exceptionally bad comment. What to do?

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bluegreen89

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Hi-

I created an account just for this issue because I'd appreciate a few diverse opinions. I am an average medical student interested in EM. By average, I mean average, not SDN average to give some perspective (i.e. I have respectable scores but not blowing anything out of the water). I did a rotation recently for which I will get a SLOE and just got some feedback. I haven't seen the SLOE and I've waived my right but I have been allowed to see the feedback.

At the end of every shift, I ask for feedback. I've done this on multiple rotations and the statements almost always reflect whats in the final evaluation. Simply put, I can't fix anything if I don't know it's broke so that's why I ask. On a recent EM rotation, I generally received positive feedback, "You're doing fine" to "Great job! Glad you brought xyz to my attention". Clerkship director was very positive toward me. No red flags, really enjoyed it, considering going there.

Today I get the feedback and while most of it is "Appropriate for her level of training", "Made my job easier and very enthusiastic", "We'd love to have Bluegreen 89 in our residency program"...I got one that went into specifics that berated me and finished with "Bluegreen89 is inappropriate and unprofessional." I know who wrote it and this is someone who was telling me I was doing fine. I take pride in being professional and am wracking my brains to figure out what I did to anger her. None of my other evaluations in any rotation say anything even remotely like this, including the other people's evaluations within this.

I can't fight it. It's in stone. So how do I address it? I would prefer to take the mature/professional road but I'm just not sure where to start.

TLDR: Good/neutral comments + one horrendous comment = how do I address this?

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I would nicely bring it up to the resident. Act professional but just ask why that was written and what you can do to improve in the future. Maybe it will turn out they wrote it on the wrong eval or something.
 
Thank you for the suggestion. Unfortunately it was at another institution and I don't have contact with this person anymore. Based on the content of the evaluation, she was definitely talking about me (e.g. specific cases we worked on together). Assuming I'll even get interview invites after this, I guess I'm asking for advice A) should I bring this up in interviews when I'm inevitably asked "Is there anything about your application you'd like to discuss?" and B) if I do bring it up, how best to address it?

I feel absolutely blindsided. If I somehow offended her, I'd like to make the correction and I'll try to be better in the future but I just don't know what to do with this.
 
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The key is that it's an outlier. If all your other evals are good and one is bad, so what? Even the best, most liked docs, will get a slanderous patient complaint once in a while, out of left field. They're called outliers. Check out the best 5 star restaurant on Yelp. Yep, an occasional 1 star slander job. If it's a pattern, you've got something to explain. Otherwise, don't sweat it for one second. You're going to let this ------- hold you back? Grow a ---- ----. ---- 'em.

"Haters gonna hate"- Proverbs 9:8
 
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This is actually good training for real life. Dealing with ridiculous, out of left-field patient complaints is something that every physician now has to deal with.

If it's just one, don't worry about it. Directors tend to look for patterns in evaluations.
 
It is just one. What caught me off guard was how specific and angry it was. Despite what this one person wrote, I still received high marks (although not perfect and this is a first) in the professionalism section of the evaluation form. Overall, my grade was a "B"/"High Pass"

At my school it's all or nothing as to what's included in the MSPE. I'm going to speak with my dean to get his advice, ultimately. Perhaps it's worth including in the Dean's letter and will be a talking point. For each rotation, all comments, good, bad, or otherwise are put in our dean's letter or they can be omitted completely but you can't cherry pick. If the bad are not included, the good aren't included either.

I tried explaining this whole process to my better half and he was absolutely baffled by it. He's not in medicine.
 
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It is just one. What caught me off guard was how specific and angry it was. Despite what this one person wrote, I still received high marks (although not perfect and this is a first) in the professionalism section of the evaluation form. Overall, my grade was a "B"/"High Pass"

At my school it's all or nothing as to what's included in the MSPE. I'm going to speak with my dean to get his advice, ultimately. Perhaps it's worth including in the Dean's letter and will be a talking point. For each rotation, all comments, good, bad, or otherwise are put in our dean's letter or they can be omitted completely but you can't cherry pick. If the bad are not included, the good aren't included either.

I tried explaining this whole process to my better half and he was absolutely baffled by it. He's not in medicine.
Talk to your Dean. If everything else is great, maybe he/she will throw it out, as an outlier. If he does, just keep it super low key, so he doesn't think word will get out and that he'll have to do it for everyone. If he won't, maybe politely suggest/request with a hint-hint, wink-wink, that he take this out, and also throw out one good comment with it, to balance it out. Sort of like the old, Olympic judging format of throwing out the highest and lowest scores. Don't be pushy, just sort of, "Hey, thanks so much for listening. It's okay of you can't, but I just thought it was an unfair review that came out of nowhere." Otherwise, if it stays in there, seriously, who gives a ----? I had this happen to me, and it actually came up in one interview. I just cooly responded with, "I don't know what happened. I seemed to get along with everyone great, this person included, and did my best with everyone at all times. I'm not sure what happened." The goal being for them to conclude the reviewer was the jerk, not me. I'm pretty sure it worked as it hasn't held me back. In fact, the guy that slammed me, ended up ranking me high. Go figure. As long as you get along with the interviewer, then they're going to conclude that persons just a ----. You don't think groups of attendings don't have those one or two amongst them, that everyone knows is a total negative creep, and can't find anything good about anyone/anything? They do.
 
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I'm recently finding myself in a very similar boat and I appreciate this post! Going to try to dust myself off and learn from the experience.
 
People can be jerks sometimes.
It takes a lot for me to give bad written evals of someone. Other people just aren't aware of how this can screw you over.
Or worse, they think it's their job to weed people out.

I recently got a terrible eval from one of my attendings. Sort of came out of nowhere.
Very surprising as it is an extreme outlier.
try to take it for what it's worth and move on.

I wouldn't worry about the comment as long as it's not a pattern.
Analyze your performance and see if there is anything you can improve.

You could say just about anything to me without me thinking you are unprofessional.
Just don't say or do that kind of stuff in front of patients.
 
The key is that it's an outlier. If all your other evals are good and one is bad, so what? Even the best, most liked docs, will get a slanderous patient complaint once in a while, out of left field. They're called outliers. Check out the best 5 star restaurant on Yelp. Yep, an occasional 1 star slander job. If it's a pattern, you've got something to explain. Otherwise, don't sweat it for one second. You're going to let this ------- hold you back? Grow a ---- ----. ---- 'em.

"Haters gonna hate"- Proverbs 9:8

I looked up proverbs 9:8 to see what it actually said and your statement was surprisingly rather accurate
 
Don't worry. It's small potatoes - one person's comments in a sea of many. Speak to your advisor about how to address it, if at all. Otherwise relax and continue to try to do your best.
 
The best are anonymous complaints to "Tip Lines". You are guilty, you have no ability to prove your innocence, and you never even know who your accuser is. Those are fantastic!
 
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