Resident/Attending doesn't give PASS with HONORS

[Sella Turcica17]

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Last week I found out that my doctor has never given pass with honors to any of the students that rotated through her office. She believes if she give a superior score this translates as there is no room for improvement, that the student is perfect. However, this isn't what pass with honors means! How do I convince her otherwise?😕

 

[Vonsmack]

Yeah I've noticed too it's hard for docs to give a top score on the eval because nobody is perfect. My last rotation I had a doc say "You were a great student, one of the best we've seen at your level of training. We'll give you a 96%." Now I was extremely happy that my brown nosing for a month paid off, but I could see how it would be virtually impossible to get the top grade. Hopefully your overall clerkship grade will have other factors (other than the shelf) to boost you up to honors.

 

[45408]

There's a professor of medicine who is on all kinds of boards and committees at the school, and he tells people that he doesn't give out honors. Sucks.

 

[SouthernSurgeon]

Last week I found out that my doctor has never given pass with honors to any of the students that rotated through her office. She believes if she give a superior score this translates as there is no room for improvement, that the student is perfect. However, this isn't what pass with honors means! How do I convince her otherwise?😕

In all likelihood, you aren't going to be able to convince her otherwise. Sucks, but them's the breaks during 3rd year. I really got frustrated by the arbitrary/subjective nature of all my evals 3rd year.

 

[psipsina]

Yeah you just have to take it unfortunately. I had one evaluator state "I'm not going to honor you for clinical knowledge, because you're don't have a superior knowledge base yet. Heck I don't have a superior knowledge base, I still need to read . . . " (so you wouldn't honor yourself . . . how exactly is any third year medstudent supposed to get honors then???) Whatevs.🙄

 

[vir0n]

My god, you'll still graduate.

 

[Brain]

I had more than one attending during my 3rd year who just gave straight passes to everyone. My advice is rock the shelf exam. It is the only thing in 3rd year that you have control over.

 

[humuhumu]

I recently completed an oral exam at the end of an anesthesiology clerkship. The attending told me I did better than 99% of the students he has tested. He then gave me a "high pass" (one level below "honors"). My first thought was, WTF? Then I reminded myself I'm a 4th year heading into radiology - no one, literally no one, will ever see or care about my evals from this rotation. I'm just here to learn stuff that will likely be useful for next year and maybe beyond. 4th year rocks.

 

[senseiturtle]

1) It happens.
2) It happens everywhere.
3) It doesn't really matter in the long run.

If you're an American graduate with at least a 230 on both Step1/Step2, and in the top half of your class, then you have nothing to worry about.

If you're not American grad, don't have at least 210, and/or are in the bottom 10% of your class... then you have to start kissing major rear-end at your home school.

 

[rock_climber]

My god, you'll still graduate.

👍

 

[beanbean]

Is it frustrating? Yes.
Don't get too pushy with the attending. She is probably very set in her ways and questioning her might backfire. If you do approach her on the topic try to keep things open-ended and just look for clarification rather than pass judgement.
Sometimes the most important thing you will learn on a rotation is what type of attending you don't want to be.