Rotation from Hell plus terrible grade

[alisepeep]

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Hi folks, I attend a school on the east coast and was recently placed on a surgery rotation that was mostly outpatient with a few inpatient procedures here and there. The surgeon I worked with was a complete dingus and did not allow me to do anything. I had to observe him and that was all he allowed me to do for a month. At the end of the rotation I asked him what grade I would be getting considering i did not get to do much there, he told me he will give me a Low Pass. I am currently livid. The grade has not been submitted yet but i dont think he was joking. I dont know what to do. Has anyone been in a situation like this? He never gave me any chances to do ANYTHING and is now giving me an abysmal grade?

 

[ruralsurg4now]

Talk to the rotation coordinator. If he does this all the time, you may have a case. If you're the only one he gave that to before, it's you, even if you don't think so.

 

[cabinbuilder]

Yep, Had an internal medicine rotation like that. Went to morning report at 7:00am. Sat in the library with the other students until 4pm when I got called to round with 3 other students. Most of rounds were spent listening to him talk about how much money he had to earn for his wife, housekeeper, and nanny for his 3 kids. He expected me to stay and round until 8-9 pm which was not feasible since my husband worked and I was told at the beginning of the rotation not to expect to stay past 7pm. I had toddlers at home and my husband worked nights. Anyhow, on the last day of the rotation he bought me a coffee, said he questioned my desire to do medicine and stated that I would never make it through residency. He gave me a 72 (passing was a 70). I marched into the rotations office, turned in my paper and stated that I did not accept the grade I was given since the guy was a total ass and it was not consistent with all my other grades.

I was lucky that the girls in the rotation office knew me well and my total grade was adjusted to reflect my past performance. I bitched out the rotation co-ordinator for allowing that guy to continue to act as a preceptor. I got it changed so not other women had to rotate with him.

Good luck. It happens to all of us.

 

[ruralsurg4now]

You're actually lucky because having kids at home, no offense, doesn't matter to preceptors. Like, I'm not saying you would do this, but if you said "I can't take call because I have kids at home," they'd just fail you.

 

[cabinbuilder]

You're actually lucky because having kids at home, no offense, doesn't matter to preceptors. Like, I'm not saying you would do this, but if you said "I can't take call because I have kids at home," they'd just fail you.

That wasn't my point. Perhaps I wasn't clear. I always made sure at the beginning of the rotation what the expectations and hours would be so I could schedule my daycare and my husband could schedule his work. My attending then would change the hours at the last minute and then laugh at me because he expected that I should have a nanny at home. Trust me, I never used my kids as an excuse but there is some expectation on rotations to at least be informed ahead of time because you can't just drop everything at the last minute when you have other responsibilities at home.

 

[EMDO2018]

Yep, Had an internal medicine rotation like that. Went to morning report at 7:00am. Sat in the library with the other students until 4pm when I got called to round with 3 other students. Most of rounds were spent listening to him talk about how much money he had to earn for his wife, housekeeper, and nanny for his 3 kids. He expected me to stay and round until 8-9 pm which was not feasible since my husband worked and I was told at the beginning of the rotation not to expect to stay past 7pm. I had toddlers at home and my husband worked nights. Anyhow, on the last day of the rotation he bought me a coffee, said he questioned my desire to do medicine and stated that I would never make it through residency. He gave me a 72 (passing was a 70). I marched into the rotations office, turned in my paper and stated that I did not accept the grade I was given since the guy was a total ass and it was not consistent with all my other grades.

I was lucky that the girls in the rotation office knew me well and my total grade was adjusted to reflect my past performance. I bitched out the rotation co-ordinator for allowing that guy to continue to act as a preceptor. I got it changed so not other women had to rotate with him.

Good luck. It happens to all of us.

I wonder if guys on ob/gyn rotations could do the same thing you did. They often don't get the chance to do anything ( for obvious reasons), then get low grades for not doing anything.

 

[cabinbuilder]

You're actually lucky because having kids at home, no offense, doesn't matter to preceptors. Like, I'm not saying you would do this, but if you said "I can't take call because I have kids at home," they'd just fail you.

I would never say that. I took all the call I was supposed to in residency. My issue is when I was told I would be done by a certain time and then at the last minute I would get, "oh you are going to have to stay 3 more hours". Sorry, can't do it. Didn't do it. At 25 I would have worried. At 37 when I was in rotations, I was like, "right, F*** off". I'm outta here. It wasn't learning, it was abusive harassment.

 

[Rendar5]

I wonder if guys on ob/gyn rotations could do the same thing you did. They often don't get the chance to do anything ( for obvious reasons), then get low grades for not doing anything.

not sure what not having a chance to do anything (not sure what the obvious reasons are honestly, whether you're a guy or a girl, they'll either let you touch their patients or won't) and getting low grades has to do with one's gender...

 

[ruralsurg4now]

I would never say that. I took all the call I was supposed to in residency. My issue is when I was told I would be done by a certain time and then at the last minute I would get, "oh you are going to have to stay 3 more hours". Sorry, can't do it. Didn't do it. At 25 I would have worried. At 37 when I was in rotations, I was like, "right, F*** off". I'm outta here. It wasn't learning, it was abusive harassment.

I don't disagree that they are ridiculous or not related to learning, but I would disagree that it's not the norm (and so therefore expected). Third- and fourth-year rotations that I've experienced (and I'm sure most people on here) were not scheduled to end at certain times, other than for outpatient rotations. I can't imagine an inpatient rotation where they said "OK, we'll be done at 6 PM every day" (although that's changed these days, since I believe work hours have made many places switch to night-float systems and shift work). I'm not defending it by saying it was right or fair, but it was sort of understood that, if someone said "change of plans, we're not rounding for another few hours," that everyone just grumbled and accepted it. You could say that was because we were spineless, but I think we all just sort of felt that was medical school and (later) residency.

 

[cabinbuilder]

Not really sure how this thread became about me? As most who are used to my posts, I don't sugar coat and try to keep things real. Trust me when I say that I understand medical school is a game and we all have to jump through hoops, etc. I have just as much patience as the next person but I do know excessive abuse of power. The man I was paired with was ridiculous, condescending to women, and made it a point to make things miserable on purpose. There is a point when enough is enough and one has to say something. Doesn't mean I had issues with every rotation (I didn't, this was the only one) but I'm not going to lay down and take it when it wasn't productive and obviously malicious. Goes back to you have to be there and make the right call for you.

As far as when the day is supposed to end: I made it a point to find out what was expected on each rotation. Had I been told "you need to be available 24/7" then that's fine and I would have made arrangements as such. However, that was not the information I received. I survived, made it through residency, and go to work everyday. The OP will survive this too.

 

[HooliganSnail]

Some people just suck, its best to ignore them

 

[cabinbuilder]

Some people just suck, its best to ignore them

How true this is.

 

[ruralsurg4now]

Time to use the report function, as I was told to do by mods.