i'm doing an away subi in gen surgery. the grade and LOR in the subi is real important for those applying for gen surg. the chief resident is the person who grades the subi and gives feedback to the attending for a LOR. but the chief resident is totally asocial. when i introduced myself on the first day as the subi he just nodded and said "Ok". that was it. no hello, no welcome, nothing. a few days ago i asked him if i could scrub in with him on a case later that morning and his response was "i guess if you want to". on rounds he doesn't ask me any questions about the patients i'm following and the couple times i've tried to present to him he ended up cutting me off within the first 15 seconds and asking the intern things about the patient before moving on to the next patient without letting me continue. at first i thought he was this way towards just me but the other residents tell me he's like that with everyone even the other residents. for example when we eat lunch in the cafeteria we all sit together (residents and med students) but he goes and sits by himself at another table, sometimes walking past all us with his lunch to an empty table on the other side of the room. he's not a mean guy or anything like that, he's just totally uninterested in interacting with med students and his fellow residents. the problem is this guy will be grading me at the end and his eval is what the attending will base his LOR on. any advice on what else i can do?
help...chief resident
- Thread starter PostCall
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I don't get it. Are you saying the attending is never around and depends on the chief to write a LOR? If so then that is sort of stupid plus, you're a little screwed. The only thing you can do is continue doing your best and hope that you get a good eval. If the attending is around then try to work with him/her but apart from that you're out of luck.
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Ummm...just work as hard as you can, and try to act up to the level of an intern.
Why does it matter if the chief isn't warm and friendly to you? He hasn't singled you out as an object of his hate (since, as you said, he acts that way towards the other residents). And I NEVER presented a single patient on my surgery sub-I, but still got honors from the chief resident - based on my work on the floors, based on the notes that I wrote everyday, and based on how I was in the OR.
Being unsociable doesn't mean that he won't notice how hard you work or how well you get along with other people.
Just work hard, and don't take his behavior personally.
Good luck.
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Well, by your own admission he acts like that toward everyone. Why would you think he's going to go out of his way to screw you with a bad eval? Just do your thing, you know how it is on rotations, you finished third year, you just gotta show up on time every day, fulfill all your responsibilities to the utmost, be respectful, ask good questions, show interest, be socially appropriate, and show yourself to be a reliable and good student day in and day out. You have to wear people down sometimes. They have dozens and dozens of students rotate through, and they work with tons of students, interns, coresidents, and attendings. You have to give it time and make a constant effort.
Edit: the only thing I'd advise is that you should ask for feedback from him.
