Possible probation on my 3rd year of fellowship

[Pedscardfellow1234]

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Hi,
I'm a 3rd year pediatric subspecialty fellow and I already signed a contract for a job. My PD received an email from a another hospital ED physician saying that I talked to him disrespectfully during a consult (not true, I provided timely and appropriate care). I'm afraid he might place me on probation and was wondering what he can do and how I can respond?
If he did put me on probation, how would this affect my situation and career, board eligibility etc
Thanks

 

[GoSpursGo]

This is a situation where I wouldn’t worry about a problem you don’t yet have.

Even if you feel like you were totally appropriate, this is likely a situation where apologizing and looking to learn from the experience will likely go a long way. “I’m so sorry the other physician took what I was saying that way. I was focused on ensuring my patient got appropriate care, but I can understand in retrospect how my tone may have come across disrespectfully in the middle of the night. I’ll be sure I learn from the experience.” If the patient didn’t experience a bad outcome, and you haven’t been a problem fellow up until now… then they might make you write some sort of formal apology, but chances are nobody is going to do anything to you unless it becomes a pattern. The main way this could go poorly for you is if you become belligerent in defending yourself—even if you were totally in the right, it just isn’t worth fighting this. You want this to go away, your PD probably wants this to go away, just find a way to tie this up and let it be done.

One other point—I think this happens to a lot of people in fellowship. I once got into a heated argument with an ED attending , who was 100% in the wrong and was very disrespectful to me, but I knew he was going to turn around and blame me. The next day I called my PD to let them know what happened to get the first word in, and that definitely helped when the inevitable complaint came in from the ED attending.

 

[Pedscardfellow1234]

Thanks. The problem is a similar situation happened during the first year and he made me sign something saying I'll do better etc. since then I've improved with no complaints and my ITE were one of the best across the country.
That's why we m concerned

 

[GoSpursGo]

Thanks. The problem is a similar situation happened during the first year and he made me sign something saying I'll do better etc. since then I've improved with no complaints and my ITE were one of the best across the country.
That's why we m concerned

Again, there is no use worrying about a problem that hasn’t happened yet—you don’t know what your PD will do, you can only control how you prepare for this meeting. So decide for yourself how you’re going to approach this meeting, whether you’ll accept the negative feedback or if you’ll professionally but firmly push back with available facts. Either way, go in with a plan, and think about how you’ll respond depending on how your PD is framing things.