SubI hell

[blight]

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So I'm on my medicine SubI currently (my specialty of choice...or it was until now), and am going crazy. My attending, who is notoriously tough and harsh, is, I feel, being unnecessarily hard on me. The interns make lots of mistakes, but she laughs them off, but whenever I do the same exact thing, she basically yells at me and tells me i'm incompetent 🙄 Whenever I try to present a patient on rounds, I can't get more than two words out without her interrupting and trying to find some fault with what I just said. Basically, I feel like i'm not being given a chance. She's nice to me when we're not on rounds, I don't get it. This is the end of my first week, mind you.

Today, she told me that I was "functioning at the level of a beginning third year"😳. And that she expects to see a vast improvement in me by the end of the month. Seriously??? I've gotten consistently glowing clinical evals all of third year, so I know I must not be totally incompetent. Even my interns told me not to listen to what she says. What do I do?!?!?
Should I hold out some hope that she's still giving me a chance by her saying that she is going to look for improvement in me by the end of my rotation? This is killing me and I'm feeling really dejected, like I don't want to go into internal medicine anymore

 

[McGillGrad]

She may be using a tough-love approach to push you. You can either choose to feel sorry for yourself or take on her challenge, grow a thicker skin and work harder. You shouldn't let her criticism push you down, because she is probably testing your character.

 

[koennen]

Geez. Grow up and stop whining. You're not going to get "consistently glowing recommendations" throughout the rest of your medical training. Get used to it.

 

[Perrotfish]

The question is, is she just a jackass in general or does she have it out for you in particular? The best way to figure this out is to find some of her previous sub-Is and try to figure out how she behaved towards them and how she evaluated them at the end of the rotation (i.e. did she write them a letter of recommendation). Watching how she acts towards the other medical students is also a hint.

If she's just got a 'tough love' (i.e. bitch) personality, but she generally writes good evals at the end, then all you need to do is suck it up and get through the month. I'm not saying she's being reasonable, but the fact of the matter is that there are quite a few attendings who never realized that Doctor Cox isn't actuallly a good role model and academic medicine doesn't have a lot of consequences for bad behavior. If that's just the kind of person she is then all you need to do is hold on, don't lash out, and reassure yourself that none of this is your fault and you'll end up with another glowing eval and a letter of rec at the end of the month.

If she's normaly more reasonable to the SubIs but has it out for you in particular, well then you need to go into damage control mode. This is supposed to be your letter of rec, after all. Ask to set a weekly meeting where she can evaluate you and help you work through whatever issues you're having. Tell her that you just need the chance to have a really good physician as a mentor. The more you can get her to take ownership of what she percieves as your deficits the more likely she is to see improvement for the sake of her own ego. Also, of course, make sure that the situation isn't actually your fault. The fact that she has different standards from other attendings doesn't make you less responsible for meeting those standards. Is there anything you could be doing better.

If she's a b!tch to everyone and she also gives bad evals to everyone at the end of the rotation then go talk to the department chair. Generaly departments adjust for low graders on core rotations, so check/argue that they should do so on a sub I as well.

Finally, of course, there's the chance that's she's singled you out for no good reason and isn't going to change her mind, in which case you're probably stuck scheduling another Sub-I. Which sucks.

 

[45408]

She may be using a tough-love approach to push you. You can either choose to feel sorry for yourself or take on her challenge, grow a thicker skin and work harder. You shouldn't let her criticism push you down, because she is probably testing your character.

Or laugh it off because some attendings have stupid quirky preferences that no one else adheres to, and you're not necessarily doing yourself a favor by learning how to do it their way.

 

[Jamers]

So I'm on my medicine SubI currently (my specialty of choice...or it was until now), and am going crazy. My attending, who is notoriously tough and harsh, is, I feel, being unnecessarily hard on me. The interns make lots of mistakes, but she laughs them off, but whenever I do the same exact thing, she basically yells at me and tells me i'm incompetent 🙄 Whenever I try to present a patient on rounds, I can't get more than two words out without her interrupting and trying to find some fault with what I just said. Basically, I feel like i'm not being given a chance. She's nice to me when we're not on rounds, I don't get it. This is the end of my first week, mind you.

Today, she told me that I was "functioning at the level of a beginning third year"😳. And that she expects to see a vast improvement in me by the end of the month. Seriously??? I've gotten consistently glowing clinical evals all of third year, so I know I must not be totally incompetent. Even my interns told me not to listen to what she says. What do I do?!?!?
Should I hold out some hope that she's still giving me a chance by her saying that she is going to look for improvement in me by the end of my rotation? This is killing me and I'm feeling really dejected, like I don't want to go into internal medicine anymore

Get yourself a calendar and count down the days until the end. Learn as much as you can do the best you can. You will meet attendings, residents, other medical students or hell even patients who treat you like a pile of crap. Just move on and don't take it to heart.

 

[Gastrapathy]

See if you can switch ward teams.