Poor/unfair residency review

[CaliforniaAppli]

So I just received a poor review on one of my residency evals from an attending. My previous reviews have all been pretty average. I was ultimately deemed to be a below average resident. The view is actually not completely accurate, and I think the attending might be confusing something that happened between the medical student and me.

Should I attempt to clarify this at all? ( There is an option under the review to reply to the eval)
Or am I be overly nitpicky and sensitive?

Do residency evals matter at all? for anything? Job wise? Chief residency? Fellowship?

Should I just let it slide?

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[ThoracicGuy]

So I just received a poor review on one of my residency evals from an attending. My previous reviews have all been pretty average. I was ultimately deemed to be a below average resident. The view is actually not completely accurate, and I think the attending might be confusing something that happened between the medical student and me.

Should I attempt to clarify this at all? ( There is an option under the review to reply to the eval)
Or am I be overly nitpicky and sensitive?

Do residency evals matter at all? for anything? Job wise? Chief residency? Fellowship?

Should I just let it slide?

I wouldn't. If this is just one, I'd let it slide. If this starts to happen more, then I'd approach a trusted mentor and ask for help.

 

[cbrons]

So I just received a poor review on one of my residency evals from an attending. My previous reviews have all been pretty average. I was ultimately deemed to be a below average resident. The view is actually not completely accurate, and I think the attending might be confusing something that happened between the medical student and me.

Should I attempt to clarify this at all? ( There is an option under the review to reply to the eval)
Or am I be overly nitpicky and sensitive?

Do residency evals matter at all? for anything? Job wise? Chief residency? Fellowship?

Should I just let it slide?

How did you get confused for the medical student?

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[Raryn]

So I just received a poor review on one of my residency evals from an attending. My previous reviews have all been pretty average. I was ultimately deemed to be a below average resident. The view is actually not completely accurate, and I think the attending might be confusing something that happened between the medical student and me.

Should I attempt to clarify this at all? ( There is an option under the review to reply to the eval)
Or am I be overly nitpicky and sensitive?

Do residency evals matter at all? for anything? Job wise? Chief residency? Fellowship?

Should I just let it slide?

If it's just one eval, forget about it. Keep in mind the noted issue and just don't do that again.

If it is a pattern of evals, address the underlying issue ASAP before it becomes more of a problem.

For jobs, residency evals typically don't matter much unless they're at an extreme. Every job the rest of your life will want to confirm you graduated in good standing. Most of the time that's a simple confirmation as long as your evals weren't so bad you ended up on probation. Your first one or two jobs you'll also be using people from residency as a reference, and you want to be in good standing there.

For fellowship, your PD will write you a LOR. One bad eval shouldn't affect that much, but a pattern might make it less glowing than it otherwise would be.

And for chief residency? Thats so variable from program to program, but one eval again shouldn't hurt you.

 

[AdmiralChz]

Not everyone breezes through residency only getting glowing reviews, one bad eval won't torpedo anything - but do have some introspection and consider why it the review was negative. The chances they confused you with the medical student is almost zero.

Your evaluations per ACGME rules should remain confidential to you and your PDs, perhaps advisor as well. So it shouldn't and won't really go anywhere.

Don't get me started on the merits/advantages of chief residency.

 

[gutonc]

I got one bad review in residency. It was from an ICU attending widely known to be a total a$$hat who started every sentence with "when I was at Hopkins" (which was like 15 years before he darkened my door).

But he was right, and I took his comments to heart.

The point? Just because you don't like what was said, doesn't mean it might not have some truth to it.

 

[Dog_luver]

If it's just one eval, forget about it. Keep in mind the noted issue and just don't do that again.

If it is a pattern of evals, address the underlying issue ASAP before it becomes more of a problem.

For jobs, residency evals typically don't matter much unless they're at an extreme. Every job the rest of your life will want to confirm you graduated in good standing. Most of the time that's a simple confirmation as long as your evals weren't so bad you ended up on probation. Your first one or two jobs you'll also be using people from residency as a reference, and you want to be in good standing there.

For fellowship, your PD will write you a LOR. One bad eval shouldn't affect that much, but a pattern might make it less glowing than it otherwise would be.

And for chief residency? Thats so variable from program to program, but one eval again shouldn't hurt you.

Evals from residency are not shown for jobs. They remain in your file and that's about it. If you do fellowship, they are even less of an issue as no one will care about residency stuff. Your PD will write a summary type statement at the end of residency and that's it. But to suggest that evals are shown to employers is not actually correct. For some of us, like in my program, there are about 50 evals/year. Anywho, as long as someone graduates in good standing - which is kind of an oxymoron since you need to be in good standing to graduate, that's all that there is. If you do private practice job, that's even less of an issue.

 

[RadOncDoc21]

It happens, there is always at least one bad evaluation.

As others have stated, don't take it personal and don't make it a habit.

 

[Raryn]

Evals from residency are not shown for jobs. They remain in your file and that's about it. If you do fellowship, they are even less of an issue as no one will care about residency stuff. Your PD will write a summary type statement at the end of residency and that's it. But to suggest that evals are shown to employers is not actually correct. For some of us, like in my program, there are about 50 evals/year. Anywho, as long as someone graduates in good standing - which is kind of an oxymoron since you need to be in good standing to graduate, that's all that there is. If you do private practice job, that's even less of an issue.

I didn't mean to imply otherwise.

There will be a summative statement at the end of your residency that will include whether or not you graduated in good standing. If you had consistent issues, they MAY be included in that statement. If you were ever on probation or your graduation was extended for performance issues, it almost certainly will be.

One bad eval won't matter.

 

[Dog_luver]

I didn't mean to imply otherwise.

There will be a summative statement at the end of your residency that will include whether or not you graduated in good standing. If you had consistent issues, they MAY be included in that statement. If you were ever on probation or your graduation was extended for performance issues, it almost certainly will be.

One bad eval won't matter.

That I agree with. Although it's needless to say that in order to graduate you have to be in good standing.

 

[NotAProgDirector]

I agree overall with the advice here. I tell every incoming intern that it is almost guaranteed that they will get one evaluation that they think is unfair, unreasonable, one sided, or just plain wrong. There's no grades anymore, so the important part is to realize that even if you think the evaluation is unfair, it does reflect what that evaluator thought of your performance. Maybe they didn't see your best? There is usually something to learn from the evaluation, filter out the noise and find something to improve.

If you think the evaluation is actually wrong -- i.e. they have evaluated the wrong person -- that's a different story.

You mention "confusing something that happened between the medical student and me". This is somewhat unclear. It could be intepreted that something the student did is being incorrectly assigned to your performance, or it could mean that they saw "something between you and the student" (i.e. an interaction) and have misunderstood what that was due to lack of context. If the student did something bad, and you were the resident who was supposed to be supervising this student, then it's not completely unreasonable that the problem is assigned to you (although in that case, I would have pointed out your failure to adequately supervise the student rather than "the problem" itself).

Your options are to do nothing, and this will get reviewed with you at your 6 month eval (which most programs do). Or, you could explore it further -- but you need to do so carefully and tactfully. You could send a note to a mentor / PD / Chief (depends on the field you're in) saying "I received this concerning evaluation which is out of character of the rest I have received, and I want to make sure I address it and improve. From reviewing the evaluation, the main points where I need improvement appear to be (insert stuff here). I also noticed that Dr. X commented upon (insert "the confusion"), and I would like more feedback regarding this as my recollection is somewhat different. Regardless, my goal is to improve my performance, I understand that I have not met Dr. X's expectations, and I want to improve and move forward".

Something like that. Non confrontational. Own the problem. Ask for more information. if there's a confusion, it will be discovered.

 

[CaliforniaAppli]

Thanks for the replies everyone !

My attending wrote that I should work on my communication skills , citing an example of a presention I gave on topic x that wasn't prelared well.

What is confusing in that our medical student gave that presentation on topic x , not me . I did not give any presentations .

I plan on just droppingit nonetheless

 

[RadOncDoc21]

Thanks for the replies everyone !

My attending wrote that I should work on my communication skills , citing an example of a presention I gave on topic x that wasn't prelared well.

What is confusing in that our medical student gave that presentation on topic x , not me . I did not give any presentations .

I plan on just droppingit nonetheless

Agree, drop it and move on!

 

[mdbarbermd]

So I just received a poor review on one of my residency evals from an attending. My previous reviews have all been pretty average. I was ultimately deemed to be a below average resident. The view is actually not completely accurate, and I think the attending might be confusing something that happened between the medical student and me.

Should I attempt to clarify this at all? ( There is an option under the review to reply to the eval)
Or am I be overly nitpicky and sensitive?

Do residency evals matter at all? for anything? Job wise? Chief residency? Fellowship?

Should I just let it slide?

I wouldn't ... Work hard and prove him wrong

 

[J ROD]

I say move on and do not make yourself a target.