Preceptor pulled me aside..

[humabot]

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...so about five us round on patients and present one complete case to our preceptor and we go over the differential...of course, we all take turns presenting in front of the preceptor and other four students....
Following our meeting, we all walked towards the exit and our preceptor turns an says....humabot, i want to talk to you for a second... and the other students leave the hospital... she was polite, but she said that i need to work on my presentation skills. she basically said that i am to visual and use non-medical terms and point to were problems are located while i am describing them...

i am not sure how to take this.... i wonder if she genuinely cares and/or my grade is in jeopardy......

or am I making of it more than it is...

 

[Zweisamkeit]

I think this is a situation where the preceptor is giving an honest critique. She didn't embarrass you in front of the group and you said she was polite about it, so it seems like she genuinely cares about your performance.

It's hard to say if this will affect your grade because only your preceptor knows that but it's probably in your best interest to try to incorporate her advice in your future presentations.

 

[DD214_DOC]

I think a lot of us are having trouble putting our rotations into perspective. We're there to learn, not to show off how awesome we are. Sometimes it's hard to change into the right mode.

 

[QofQuimica]

...so about five us round on patients and present one complete case to our preceptor and we go over the differential...of course, we all take turns presenting in front of the preceptor and other four students....
Following our meeting, we all walked towards the exit and our preceptor turns an says....humabot, i want to talk to you for a second... and the other students leave the hospital... she was polite, but she said that i need to work on my presentation skills. she basically said that i am to visual and use non-medical terms and point to were problems are located while i am describing them...

i am not sure how to take this.... i wonder if she genuinely cares and/or my grade is in jeopardy......

or am I making of it more than it is...

Did you just start rotations? You must have, or you wouldn't be surprised by attendings criticizing you. 😉

Look, your attendings are busy people. They have better things to do than try to screw around with your mind. Take what she said at face value and be grateful she's giving you a chance to get your s*** together before she gives you a grade. Next time you present to her, use medical terms and do not point to body parts. It's that simple. Your next attending probably won't care and will tell you to do the exact opposite, but while you're on this attending's service, you do things her way. Then you adapt to what the next guy wants, and so on and so on until you're done with third year. Nothing you think matters when you're a third year. The sooner you accept that, the easier this year will be on you. Best of luck.

 

[Doctor Bagel]

Yeah, she's trying to help you. If you follow her suggestions, I doubt you'll have any grade problems related to this presentation stuff. And don't feel bad because presenting is hard and largely non-intuitive. Also, attendings like different styles, so you're always tweaking the presentations.

 

[humabot]

thanks. this is a pre-rotation clinical experience..i guess i just felt bad because she pulled me aside. yet, others in the group had issues too, but were never told anything. it is just confusing to deal with.. i guess i will experience this a lot more next month when our real rotations begin.

 

[Droopy Snoopy]

thanks. this is a pre-rotation clinical experience..i guess i just felt bad because she pulled me aside. yet, others in the group had issues too, but were never told anything. it is just confusing to deal with.. i guess i will experience this a lot more next month when our real rotations begin.

You can't know that with any certainty.

 

[Law2Doc]

.... i wonder if she genuinely cares and/or my grade is in jeopardy......

As you may learn during your rotations, these are not mutually exclusive. Attendings want you to improve, and give you criticism they hope you can use, but all too often when it comes down to grading sometimes your first impression is what sticks. You will have good attendings and bad ones. Some will be helpful, some will mean well but give useless advice, many more will give inconsistent advice. You very likely will be told you need to work on something in one rotation, but be told you are rock solid in another -- so how you are doing sometimes has less to do with you as with the attendings you end up with. That being said, if your presentations need work, you need to work on them. The goal is that by the time you start sub-Is, they want you to be presenting similar to the interns. Which is something that comes with practice and good feedback -- not necessarilly naturally.

Usually if you are working with interns or other junior residents who have no input in your grading, that is going to be the best place to get real feedback on this kind of stuff.

 

[Smurfette]

also, make sure she knows you are trying to take her advice; ask her for feedback after a few days to see if you've gotten better. This way, she will notice you are trying and improving, which will also help you in her evaluations of you.

 

[SouthernSurgeon]

...so about five us round on patients and present one complete case to our preceptor and we go over the differential...of course, we all take turns presenting in front of the preceptor and other four students....
Following our meeting, we all walked towards the exit and our preceptor turns an says....humabot, i want to talk to you for a second... and the other students leave the hospital... she was polite, but she said that i need to work on my presentation skills. she basically said that i am to visual and use non-medical terms and point to were problems are located while i am describing them...

i am not sure how to take this.... i wonder if she genuinely cares and/or my grade is in jeopardy......

or am I making of it more than it is...

This is a pre-clinical rotation? Then the whole point of it basically is to teach you how to examine and present, right? I'd think that level of specific, helpful, one-on-one feedback is a good thing. I think the attending is trying to help.

Though I would echo L2D's point that trying to help and simultaneously evaluating you are not mutually exclusive...

 

[Snuffbox]

...so about five us round on patients and present one complete case to our preceptor and we go over the differential...of course, we all take turns presenting in front of the preceptor and other four students....
Following our meeting, we all walked towards the exit and our preceptor turns an says....humabot, i want to talk to you for a second... and the other students leave the hospital... she was polite, but she said that i need to work on my presentation skills. she basically said that i am to visual and use non-medical terms and point to were problems are located while i am describing them...

i am not sure how to take this.... i wonder if she genuinely cares and/or my grade is in jeopardy......

or am I making of it more than it is...

Don't worry- I had a similar experience where I started rambling when I was presenting one of my patients that had a phonebook of issues. My attending cut me off and told me to get back to the basics. It was helpful because I had forgotten a lot of the basics of presenting a patient- I still got a great eval from that attending because I listened and acted on her recommendations. I did great the rest of the rotation and got very good evals, much of that thanks to that attending fixing my deficiencies early.

Don't take it personally, the fact that she talked to you shows that she wants you to improve.

 

[PharmD2MD]

This is nothing. Take the critique for whatever it's worth and move on. Work on your presentations. No biggie. You have to develop a thick skin on rotations- you'll get all kinds of feedback, good and bad, friendly and hostile, etc. You can't perseverate over it- just take it and keep on trucking.

 

[45408]

i am not sure how to take this.... i wonder if she genuinely cares and/or my grade is in jeopardy......

or am I making of it more than it is...

I agree that it's both. She cares enough about your grade to tell you what your shortcomings are, but if you don't care enough to improve, then your grade will suffer. Nobody expects perfection, but almost everyone expects improvement.

And no, you're not making more out of it than it is - you really should work on improving what she said.

 

[Jamers]

...so about five us round on patients and present one complete case to our preceptor and we go over the differential...of course, we all take turns presenting in front of the preceptor and other four students....
Following our meeting, we all walked towards the exit and our preceptor turns an says....humabot, i want to talk to you for a second... and the other students leave the hospital... she was polite, but she said that i need to work on my presentation skills. she basically said that i am to visual and use non-medical terms and point to were problems are located while i am describing them...

i am not sure how to take this.... i wonder if she genuinely cares and/or my grade is in jeopardy......

or am I making of it more than it is...

Sounds like she was being genuine. I have had preceptors who will just interrupt you in the middle of your presentation and start criticizing it. Being pulled aside is not only more educational it doesn't make you feel like a tool afterwords.

 

[zp225]

I would be grateful for that advice if I was you. I am a third year and constantly trying to improve my presentation skills and it is seldom that I am able to pull some constructive criticism from residents and attendings -- so I feel that this preceptor is paying close attention to you and only wants you to perfect your skills.
You are not a doctor, you are a medical student. I would rather get a critique like that than for the preceptor to say nothing or just 'good' -- because as a student there is always room for improvement. Its better to mess up now rather than later.

I would take this criticism in stride knowing many wont give such an honest, constructive critique. And in terms of grades -- you will receive a good score if you show her that you took her suggestions seriously.

 

[NonTradDO]

The attending is taking time to explain this because they obviously care. Take it as a compliment and start using any advice he or she gives you. Your grade shouldn't suffer