Mspe bad evaluation

[mango6110]

I just saw my MSPE and was surprised to find that an evaluation I received for an elective scholarly month had been placed verbatim on my deans letter.

Our school requires a scholarly project and I took a month elective to complete it. I had a sudden family emergency and left the state, but at that time did a poor job of communicating this with my mentor. He subsequently gave me a poor evaluation that questioned my professionalism, my ability to meet deadlines, and my communciation skills...which is all explained in extreme details in one large paragraph, essentially all the things you do not want on your mspe.

All my other evaluations are great, saying i have great communicaiton skills, always prepared, etc, Ive never had any other professionalism issues and this is a complete outlier.

I met with my dean and she stated that I go meet with my mentor to see if he would remove any of the comments he made and explain to him that this is in no way/shape/ or form encapsulates me as a medical student. I acknowledge I did not do a good job of communicating, but im really scared, its an elective month that could potentially sabotage my whole residency application...even if everything else is great, im sure people are going to look at it extremely negatively...

Anyone have a similar experience and any advice on how to talk to my mentor. Im really nervous he won't budge.

 

[theunderdog]

What you need to do is get off SDN immediately and contact the clerkship director or your scholarly project main person. Dean's letters are being uploaded this week and next before November 1.

If you have a bad evaluation, only these clerkship directors can change it. Otherwise, it will show for show on your MSPE. I too had a negative coment from one of my racist attendings, and I finally saw it on my MSPE two weeks ago. I got it removed today!

How to address it -- You need to explain how I explained mine. You accept the comment completely, but you not wanting it on your MSPE doesn't reflect anything about you not being able to take criticism. In fact, you take criticism well and have done well throughout your year, but you need to let them know that this comment shows up on your deans' letter for BOTH residency and fellowships.

So believe me, you need to work to get it off the MSPE. Nothing is final yet until it's uploaded.

 

[J1515]

I acknowledge I did not do a good job of communicating,

I'm guessing this pretty much means you just stopped going without telling anyone. I can't comprehend how you could defend yourself, family emergency or not. Shoot an email, leave a voicemail, call the next day or the day after or the day after that. Is there really an excuse?

 

[mango6110]

I'm guessing this pretty much means you just stopped going without telling anyone. I can't comprehend how you could defend yourself, family emergency or not. Shoot an email, leave a voicemail, call the next day or the day after or the day after that. Is there really an excuse?

Thank you for your extremely helpful post. And no, its not that I didnt go in, its not bench research, its a writing project. I told him I was leaving for out of state but told him I needed to go see my family (I did not tell him the details of my family emergency) and subsequently emailed him saying I was not going to be back for longer than expected and he took it as me going away on a vacation. Subsequently, I did not have as much work done as I could have.

 

[theunderdog]

Thank you for your extremely helpful post. And no, its not that I didnt go in, its not bench research, its a writing project. I told him I was leaving for out of state but told him I needed to go see my family (I did not tell him the details of my family emergency) and subsequently emailed him saying I was not going to be back for longer than expected and he took it as me going away on a vacation. Subsequently, I did not have as much work done as I could have.

In all honesty, you probably should have apologized or explained yourself before or after the time away. Put yourself in your attending or advisor's shoes. Or you should have asked for more time so that the work would be on par with what others have done in the past. But what's done is done!

Ultimately, to change or remove the comment from the Dean's letter is going to require the permission of that advisor. The Dean's letter verbatim comments are essentially quotes, and they can't be changed unless the owner of the quote agrees to change it. THe clerkship director has the final say in this matter, however. So good luck!

 

[sore eye asses]

If the person who wrote those negative comments is at all familiar with the residency application process and this didn't stop them from making said comments, I am worried for you. It seems almost passive aggressive. Like they intentionally wanted to damage your application. I hope you are able to reason with this person.

 

[Guest ABC]

I am surprised that such comments would be written in an MSPE. Couldn't this result in a legal issue?

 

[NotAProgDirector]

Nothing is final yet until it's uploaded.

Actually, if the MSPE is edited it can be uploaded a second time, and will replace the original. As long as this is done before Nov 1st, programs will only see the updated MSPE. So, I agree that time is of the essence if this is going to be changed, but there is still time.

 

[theunderdog]

Actually, if the MSPE is edited it can be uploaded a second time, and will replace the original. As long as this is done before Nov 1st, programs will only see the updated MSPE. So, I agree that time is of the essence if this is going to be changed, but there is still time.

Agree with aPD above. As long as the 1st one is not downloaded and then 2nd one is uploaded to replaced the 1st one, then you'll be fine. Again, time is the key right now.

 

[tfom08]

I am surprised that such comments would be written in an MSPE. Couldn't this result in a legal issue?

The MSPE is mostly comprised of evaluations from clerkships. Mine has every comment made on an evaluation during 3rd year and the beginning of 4th year. The good comments, bad comments, and all the ones in between are included. If your evaluator says something bad, then that is what goes in the MSPE.

 

[Blesbok]

I am surprised that such comments would be written in an MSPE. Couldn't this result in a legal issue?

This is exactly what the mspe is for. It allows your school to communicate what type of overall student you are whether that means saying you are the best student ever or that you had some missteps. The evaluator would be doing the programs interviewing the OP a disservice by not including it.