MS3 booted to accommodate shadowing college students

[TBV]

---

Members don't see this ad.

I was just surprised he was so unprofessional if he would have told me the night before he couldn't have me I would have rescheduled and spent the day shadowing in what I believe my specialty choice will be and rubbing elbows with residents and attendings. But rather he let me sit in a room for 1.5 hours waiting for his ass and then told me to go find some busy work.

I agree not the end of the world but I warned people I'm rotating with and that will be the end of that

 

[psychhopefull2016]

Also underwhelmed. If you only had one day in this clinic chances are it wouldn't make a career changing difference in your mind. Some attendings suck. Some clinics are underwhelming and you do nothing. Some are great. If you really think you may be into that specialty you need to do a whole elective and test it out.

Also, FWIW, clinic day on surgery was the only day I didn't want to bash my face in. I got to talk to patients and gather histories, aka the fun part of medicine. But surgery was the worst 8 weeks of life for me.

 

[ProfMD]

Or maybe these unpaid preceptors just shouldn't take students if they don't have time. They chose to be faculty, whether paid or unpaid, they chose to get the CME, tax breaks, and promote their private practice as "faculty of XX school of medicine." They didn't have to. Not saying they have to bend over backwards, but the medical school also didn't have to open 15 satellite campuses and employ shotty faculty just to raise their class size
from 100-250.

I 100% agree that people who are faculty at medical schools or who agree to take rotating students should be willing to teach them. However, faculty do not get CME or tax breaks. They may get to promote their practice, but even this is not guaranteed. Basically, unless the preceptor is full-time faculty or getting a stipend from the school, he or she is doing this out of the goodness of his/her heart. This does not change the physician's obligation once they have volunteered to take a student, but just keep in mind that this physician may be getting zero personal benefit.

I was just surprised he was so unprofessional if he would have told me the night before he couldn't have me I would have rescheduled and spent the day shadowing in what I believe my specialty choice will be and rubbing elbows with residents and attendings. But rather he let me sit in a room for 1.5 hours waiting for his ass and then told me to go find some busy work.

I agree not the end of the world but I warned people I'm rotating with and that will be the end of that

Good move. Making a huge deal about this would be a mistake. However, educating other students is appropriate. Also, hopefully your school will have you fill out an evaluation at some point and that would be an appropriate time to mention something.

 

[jqueb29]

This was the only afternoon in this particular subspecialty not something that can just be made up tomorrow. More so pissed off because I missed out on the experience and may have liked the specialty as a career but will have no exposure as I am apparently lower on the totem pole than 19 year olds home from college.

That's definitely some bull****. Seems like I'm in the minority here but I would definitely file a complaint. The physician made a choice to be your preceptor. If he can't fulfill that commitment, then that's all on him. Pretty pathetic too since that's your one day while those little college kids can come shadow any day. While I would be pissed, I wouldn't complain in a pissed/whiny way. As someone else said, state the facts (that way they know the preceptor was a ****head) and ask if there's any way you can get the experience again with someone else. Be professional and complain without necessarily complaining.

 

[235009]

I think what you do in this case totally depends on how friendly your clerkship directory is and how much he or she advocates for students. If the director is the kind of person you want to minimize your interaction with then let it go. If not send a quick email letting them know what happened. Most will appreciate it because they want to improve the clerkship and it'll be refreshing hearing from a student complaining that they were sent home early!


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile app

 

[Donald Juan]

You pay tuition to the school to give you an education. The individual preceptors have specific obligations based on their contracts/agreements with schools. Their obligation is not to you, it is to the school. Further, the school is providing you with an education. Again, a single missed clinic day is hardly an educational disruption. The entitlement here is astounding.



So then go to a different school that didn't massively increase their class sizes and employ poor faculty. If you aren't happy with the education, then stop paying for it.



This is the United States. If you don't like what you are paying for, stop paying for it and spend your hard earned money on something else. We get it. You think that if you pay someone money, you own them.

You're typically one of my favorite posters, which is why I don't understand why you are acting like it is a reasonable choice for a med student to just stop paying for their education, when they are likely already six figures in debt as an ms3 and have no option to transfer to other schools or be accepted to other schools. Let's not act like going to a med school you're dissatisfied with is the same as going to a restaurant you're dissatisfied with. Not to mention that, as I said above, med schools actively seek input from their students and residents in how they could maximize the education. It's not just sour grapes or entitlement that should lead us to point out flaws.

But then, med school is credentialing us to be doctors. It is our only pathway to get these credentials once you're in a particular school. So, maybe the education is worth it no matter how crappy it is...and I would partly agree. It also doesn't mean I have to act like the crap smells like roses and we shouldn't try to improve the poor aspects.

To be fair, I agree that if this is a one time thing, no big deal. I wouldn't argue, I wouldn't go to anybody and complain, and if the rotation/attending was good overall I wouldn't write anything negative in an eval. I'm still not going to act like being sent home your first day in lieu of a premed shadowing is appropriate form.