Just got my first "P"

[Giovanotto]

Beginning of third year, my first in-patient IM clerkship at a large "home" hospital resulted in a "P". My school sets it up so that you can get Honors, High Pass, Pass, Low Pass, and Fail. FWIW, most students at my school get "HP" from preceptors, but this preceptor is notorious for giving everyone "P". This "P" was assigned by my preceptor, I have yet to take the shelf, but essentially even getting 100% on the shelf will net me a "P". How hard should I fight this? I'm pretty pissed about the whole thing, won't go into details, but I don't feel it was deserved by any means.

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[raiderette]

At my school, you can expect a P or two based on curved test scores. If it is in your intended specialty, honor your sub-i and get glowing letters from electives. If it isn't your intended specialty, move on.

 

[Giovanotto]

At my school, you can expect a P or two based on curved test scores. If it is in your intended specialty, honor your sub-i and get glowing letters from electives. If it isn't your intended specialty, move on.

I mean, it's internal medicine, it's pretty much in everyone's back pocket as far as intended specialties are concerned. But advice noted.

 

[831929]

Not sure what you can fight here. At my school a "P" means you are performing at the level expected of a student. about 40-50% of people get a P another 30-40 get HP

 

[Taxonomy]

Beginning of third year, my first in-patient IM clerkship at a large "home" hospital resulted in a "P". My school sets it up so that you can get Honors, High Pass, Pass, Low Pass, and Fail. FWIW, most students at my school get "HP" from preceptors, but this preceptor is notorious for giving everyone "P". This "P" was assigned by my preceptor, I have yet to take the shelf, but essentially even getting 100% on the shelf will net me a "P". How hard should I fight this? I'm pretty pissed about the whole thing, won't go into details, but I don't feel it was deserved by any means.

I feel you. Please don't get discouraged by this and try to move on. This will not affect you in the long run.
My previous rotation where I got "exceeds expectations" - it says right on the evaluation form that only 20% of students get it - so it's a kinda helping guideline for attending to evaluate you. The irony is that I asked another attending first to evaluate me (we rotate each week with different attending in IM), but he said he is reluctant to do so due to my poor performance. When I asked different attending that I rotated with previous week - she evaluated me and gave me a excellent feedback - that's how I got "exceeds expectations" eval. The thing is I was doing my "job" same way and followed same protocols taking h&p, reporting, etc. I did everything same and since our knowledge is limited on 3rd year it's really hard to do something drastically different. All of us (or majority at least) tries our best on rotations. And yet 2 attendings had vastly different views on my performance. So there you have it.
Human factor is always going to be involved in evals. Some attendings are more fair and professional, some are less, some will sympathize with you some might even dislike you a bit. More often than not this is going to affect evals. Just keep doing good work and try your best and I'm sure a 1 or 2 P grade isn't going to matter.

 

[Black Coffee 24/7]

Beginning of third year, my first in-patient IM clerkship at a large "home" hospital resulted in a "P". My school sets it up so that you can get Honors, High Pass, Pass, Low Pass, and Fail. FWIW, most students at my school get "HP" from preceptors, but this preceptor is notorious for giving everyone "P". This "P" was assigned by my preceptor, I have yet to take the shelf, but essentially even getting 100% on the shelf will net me a "P". How hard should I fight this? I'm pretty pissed about the whole thing, won't go into details, but I don't feel it was deserved by any means.

What are the comments that will go on your MSPE? Don't worry about it, dude. It's done. Just move forward and try your best on your future rotations.

When you're an attending yourself 5-10 years down the road, you might give some med students a P here and there for giggles.

 

[Giovanotto]

What are the comments that will go on your MSPE? Don't worry about it, dude. It's done. Just move forward and try your best on your future rotations.

When you're an attending yourself 5-10 years down the road, you might give some med students a P here and there for giggles.

I'd rather not disclose, but thanks for the laugh.