Residency File

[Orange Julius]

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I'm talking about the residency file we all have in the program office. It contains applications, evaluations, grades, etc. Basically all the tangible facts of our residency experience.

Do we have access to it all? Is that our legal right? Can we be told that we can't see some parts of it?

Can we copy it? Again, is that our legal right? Can we be told that we can't copy some parts of it?

 

[FutureInternist]

Any LoRs may be off-limits but other than that all of it should be available (and it is at my program)

 

[Buzz Me]

I'm also allowed access to my file here.

 

[docB]

I don't think you are "legally" entitled to any information your program has on you unless your state's labor laws say you do. I know that in many states employers are not obliged to allow employees to see their files. In states where they are required to show them their files they can redact information such as disciplinary stuff, the names of people who filed complaints, etc.

I would be very surprised if you could have carte blanch access to your file and even more surprised if they let you copy it. Just check out the myriad threads about residents who have been terminated and how Kafkaesque it gets. No access to the file, no information on by who or when bad reviews were made.

 

[Smurfette]

I was allowed to access my entire file and make copies of certain documents in it (for board application purposes; they kept copies of important documents in our files that I needed for the app. I didn't think to ask if there were things I couldn't copy since I had specific things I was looking for, and no desire to copy other stuff). It wasn't a big deal, had all my evals (90% of which I'd seen before), in-training exam scores, other testing scores, ERAS documents (which were old and outdated and of no interest to me anymore), licenses, certifications, contracts, etc. Over the years, I had gotten copies of almost everything in my file (our evals were available online). No "secret documents". No funny business.

Programs have to keep your file (or certain parts of it) indefinitely for licensing and credentialling purposes; future PDs and department staff base information off of the stuff in your file to sign documents verifying your training and any disciplinary issues.