Should I get legal counsel for residency remediation?

[fireangel99]

I'm currently a third year resident who belongs to a large residency program. I remember as an intern many residents warned me that our program was notorious for labeling residents and for targeting them. I listened to what they said but I took it with a grain of salt. I was pretty optimistic (or should I say naïve?).
When I was in my first trimester of pregnancy I unfortunately p***ed off an attending by asking if she could take a first year with her for a primary cesarean section. It is the first year's responsibility to do the cesarean sections, however this attending wanted to finish early and go home and requested a senior resident. I was in no shape or form to go in to it (due to nausea and vomiting), so she took another attending with her. This attending was BFFs with the chair of that hospital and before I know it I was threatened to be dismissed that week. I apologized profusely and had thought the situation was resolved. However, next thing I knew I had a series of "complaints" from multiple unknown personnel and I find myself 3 months later sitting in front of my program director on remediation with a list of issues from "unknown" staff, from "residents" to "attendings."
The problem with our residency is the vast majority of the administrations that grade us with the new committee rules, spend probably less than 5% of the time actually with us. I fear that there isn't any way to improve my standing with "unknown" forces and I don't believe there will be a fairness when it comes to evaluating me during this remediation process. I feel like depending on the mood of the higher ups, my career could be decimated

My question is: Should I hire legal counsel to ensure that the proceedings are fair, that there are real investigations into these rumors, and ask questions that I am not able to ask?

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[meerkat111]

This does not sound good. But you just have to tough it out. You are in third yr, you can fight this. Do not let them win.

 

[Call Me Dr.]

Contact your GME director. As a resident, your employer is actually the GME and this type of situation is precisely what they should be involved in.

I understand what you're going through. My fellowship program had 2 out of 3 fellows quit. I (the fellow who actually chose to stay and who had been receiving glowing feedback to that point) then started to experience all sorts of roundabout "complaints" from unnamed people. It was so bad that I had to stop working clinically for a brief period of time. I considered leaving medicine. None of the "complaints" had any basis in reality but I felt like I couldn't do anything to fight the shadows. I was encouraged by someone who counseled staff facing workplace bullying to consider hiring an attorney, which I did not do. There were a few things that helped me through - a new fellowship director and some resources outside of our department (especially the GME who developed a plan with the fellowship director to protect me). Contact your GME director. You have the right to at least get their advice from outside your department.