Please tell me what you think!

[med2006McGill]

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I got the following comments for my surgery rotation: "Excellent rotation....Should not let herself get affected by a single patient's poor outcome (it shows good empathy)." Now, I am worried that this last comment will ruin my chances. I'm thinking about applying to internal (med onc) or rad onc. Can you guys tell me what you think about the comment? 🙁

 

[deschutes]

I got the following comments for my surgery rotation: "Excellent rotation....Should not let herself get affected by a single patient's poor outcome (it shows good empathy)." Now, I am worried that this last comment will ruin my chances. I'm thinking about applying to internal (med onc) or rad onc. Can you guys tell me what you think about the comment? 🙁

I think you should take your preceptor's sound advice 🙂

 

[dchristismi]

No one comment from a rotation that isn't even within the speciality you're considering will ruin your chances. I'm not even sure what the comment really means - you obviously do, but unless your school puts EVERY comment in your dean's letter, I really wouldn't worry about it. The "excellent rotation" part is more important anyway.

And FWIW, people do get involved emotionally in bad outcomes. You're not supposed to... but when you've been coding a kid, and it was a tragic accident to begin with, and the kid has a bad outcome, well, people are often affected. Even if it's not a kid, bad things happen to good people. It's human nature, and that's why there are critical stress debriefings for EMS/ED staff after such events. The police and fire departments use similar debriefings for their staff. If you need to take to someone, do so - don't let it overwhelm you.

So really, I wouldn't worry about the comment.
Just my 2c

 

[BigBadBix]

No one comment from a rotation that isn't even within the speciality you're considering will ruin your chances.

I agree with this. Not all your comments will make it into your Dean's Letter, and they will try to make you look like a strong applicant because it is to their advantage to get you into the best program possible.

I got a few little comments like this on third year evaluations, and I know they can kind of throw you off at first, especially if you are sensitive to criticism like I am. But, instead of letting every comment upset you, it's better to just let them guide your internal reflections about your performance and whether you are becoming the kind of physician that you want to become. I did this by trying to answer 2 questions: (1) do I feel this observation has even a bit of truth to it? and (2) is the person who wrote this someone I want to emulate? If both answers were yes, I took the comment to heart and tried to improve my performance. Otherwise, I took it with a huge grain of salt.

Unless you highly respect this person or had some kind of meltdown about a bad outcome, I don't think you need to worry extensively about this comment...but you are the only one that can decide about that.

 

[edfig99]

don't worry about the comment. i've reviewed thousands of applications over the years for med school and residency and have read so much "worse" and it's not even a bad comment -- it's something meant to be constructive, formative...

it is the type of comment that can be a springboard for discussion during an interview -- "so tell me about a difficult patient encounter you had in medical school"

and these days with competency based medical education, the "excellent rotation" is much less useful...the "shows empathy" comment is much more valuable.

relax. 🙂

-ed

 

[yaah]

If the occasional constructive criticism ruined one's chances for residency, there would be 5 doctors currently practicing in the united states.