Poor eval

[hopefulmed]

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So this is not the end of the world, and unlikely to affect my grades. But want to get some of you guy's opinion since it's kind of annoying.

I have one crappy eval that pretty much contradict all the other evals I received on a very important rotation. Some of what was written was grossly taken out of context about what I said, some of it was grossly misinterpret (feel like this individual did it on purpose), and some was just shamelessly false. To balance things out, there were positive comments on this eval also, but they are artificial and always lead with "although." Summary of the eval pretty much say that I'm unconcerned about the patient, more interested in ordering lots of labs, and only care about looking good to other faculties/residents, and better off in other field.

Again, this does not affect my grade, and is one eval out of several others that say the complete opposite. Normally, I don't let these things bother me, mostly because I haven't ever receive an eval like this before. But this person makes me feel like a pretty ****ty human being. I'd like to confront this person, or at least the course chair, but I wonder it's even worthed. 🙁

 

[domer621]

So... what exactly did it say?

 

[DarthNeurology]

So this is not the end of the world, and unlikely to affect my grades. But want to get some of you guy's opinion since it's kind of annoying.

I have one crappy eval that pretty much contradict all the other evals I received on a very important rotation. Some of what was written was grossly taken out of context about what I said, some of it was grossly misinterpret (feel like this individual did it on purpose), and some was just shamelessly false. To balance things out, there were positive comments on this eval also, but they are artificial and always lead with "although." Summary of the eval pretty much say that I'm unconcerned about the patient, more interested in ordering lots of labs, and only care about looking good to other faculties/residents, and better off in other field.

Again, this does not affect my grade, and is one eval out of several others that say the complete opposite. Normally, I don't let these things bother me, mostly because I haven't ever receive an eval like this before. But this person makes me feel like a pretty ****ty human being. I'd like to confront this person, or at least the course chair, but I wonder it's even worthed. 🙁

Big shots (well big shots in their mind) like to think they can choose who enters their specialty, so yes they will torpedo people with unfair comments if they would make only a "good fill-in-the-blank" and not as excellent as they are. It is a political game for these people, I am guessing that is the case hear as comments like wanting to order labs sounds chidlike, i.e. mud-slinging. You should go and nicely talk to the person who wrote the eval, and just ask why and don't confront, and then go to the course director to have a "conversation" about this eval, . . . and if you truly feel so then say you think it is unfair SO when it comes time to write the Dean's letter and if this makes it in then say to the dean what your findings are i.e. "The evaluator was rude to me (if they were) and told me I got the eval because I didn't do x or y, when I in fact did, and I brought this up with the course director who said this, and so obviously this doesn't reflect my overall performance and I think it would be inappropriate of the school to put this in my dean's letter." You HAVE to follow it up, i.e. do your own little investigation, at the very least it makes you look studious and concerned about your performance (a plus) and at the best it will give you some ammunition. If you don't follow it up then it looks like you don't care, and it you do follow it up at least the evaluator will get feedback from students about their little bizarre comments in evals and maybe learn to write a better eval, i.e. performance based and not a holier-than-thou attack on your character (sucks).

 

[haveaniceday]

I don't think it is worth it to confront anyone about it. If it is as glaringly different from your other evals as you say, than you have a strong argument for making sure it does not get put on your dean's letter. So, I would just hold off on dealing with it until that point.

 

[DarthNeurology]

I don't think it is worth it to confront anyone about it. If it is as glaringly different from your other evals as you say, than you have a strong argument for making sure it does not get put on your dean's letter. So, I would just hold off on dealing with it until that point.

But, . . . if the evaluator is a big-shot attending it pays to ask what you can do better in future clerkships (without laughing out loud as you leave their office), and to talk to the course director. If you are courteous and professional, i.e. business like, they will respect you for it and see that you take their eval seriously. You should at least see if there is a shred of truth to the eval, i.e. something you did unintentionally that you can eliminate during the next clerkship. Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer. You have to get more info, no harm there at all.

 

[hopefulmed]

But, . . . if the evaluator is a big-shot attending it pays to ask what you can do better in future clerkships (without laughing out loud as you leave their office), and to talk to the course director. If you are courteous and professional, i.e. business like, they will respect you for it and see that you take their eval seriously. You should at least see if there is a shred of truth to the eval, i.e. something you did unintentionally that you can eliminate during the next clerkship. Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer. You have to get more info, no harm there at all.

It was from a chief resident. It was pretty much all criticism on my character. The only objective criticism was on my write-up, which again is contradicted (good eval) by the attending. Though I doubt that this individual's comment will make it to my Dean's letter given how how many other comments that just says the complete opposite, that's not what I'm not concern about at this point. I just think it's totally unprofessional, particularly when this individual had ample opportunities to express all this with me during our feedback sessions.

 

[Mayhem]

I think you need to choose your battles. I don't think this is worth a confrontation. You said it's not affecting your grade and it's unlikely to get into your Dean's letter so what's the point. I get that you're pissed but let's think about it, what exactly do you think you can say to this person that would result in them apologizing and agreeing that they were unprofessional and biased towards you? Do you get my point? In all honesty the dude is probably gonna stick to his guns, probably say you can't take criticism well and then you'll end up even more pissed. Bottom line, if you really want to do something about it then go ahead but if you know it isn't true and you have the evidence on your side (given he is the lone hater) then I would just forget him and move on with my life. At least, that's my take.

 

[Blade28]

Technically if the eval is placed in the "official" grading section of your rotation, it'll end up on the Dean's letter (all official MS-III evals go into it, unedited).

 

[hopefulmed]

Technically if the eval is placed in the "official" grading section of your rotation, it'll end up on the Dean's letter (all official MS-III evals go into it, unedited).

Fortunately it wasn't. But it could still be included if it's damning enough. Thus, a still a little concern.

 

[NoMind]

It wont be on your letter esp if it is sharply contradictory to other evals. Forget about it. If you confront this Chief you could cause yourself unforseen problems down the road.

 

[Dr McSteamy]

yeah. if he's a nobody, go and fight him.

i did that once, but it was about a grade miscalculation. what pissed me off was that he came up with a lame total BS excuse not to change it. but after some persistence, he gave in.