the good, the bad and the ugly of clinical grades

[epsilonprodigy]

Everyone seems to have the same take about rotations: they're totally subjective and based more on how you come across than what you know. I'm in my second rotation and haven't gotten back my evals from the first. All the advice we get is pretty vague: be interested, but not annoying, be proactive, but not aggressive...

Instead of all that, I want to hear some examples of things excellent med students have done, as well as those who were totally out to lunch. Let the storytelling begin....

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[Fatalis]

Everyone seems to have the same take about rotations: they're totally subjective and based more on how you come across than what you know. I'm in my second rotation and haven't gotten back my evals from the first. All the advice we get is pretty vague: be interested, but not annoying, be proactive, but not aggressive...

Instead of all that, I want to hear some examples of things excellent med students have done, as well as those who were totally out to lunch. Let the storytelling begin....

me and a buddy stayed super late on a friday night bc it was busy in the psych ER and there was only 1 resident. This earned more respect then we could have imagined and it was even brought up during our final eval.

 

[Kaustikos]

me and a buddy stayed super late on a friday night bc it was busy in the psych ER and there was only 1 resident. This earned more respect then we could have imagined and it was even brought up during our final eval.

It's those moments that count. Not to sound selfish, but the moments where it's just you and one resident is where you learn/do alot. I'll never forget when I decided to stay at the hospital the night before my neuro final and got to be the only one assisting the fellow on an emergent epidural case in the OR. I definitely made a good impression. It was worth it.

 

[Top Gun]

It's those moments that count. Not to sound selfish, but the moments where it's just you and one resident is where you learn/do alot. I'll never forget when I decided to stay at the hospital the night before my neuro final and got to be the only one assisting the fellow on an emergent epidural case in the OR. I definitely made a good impression. It was worth it.

Um, how did you end up in the OR assisting on an epidural case if you were doing a final for a neuro rotation the next day?

 

[ChiDO]

my psych attending told me he was going to give the highest grade that he's ever given a student who is not interested in psych...a 88/100. My fellow classmate who never showed up for rounds, nor did any work received a 99/100 because he told the attending he wanted to go into psych. subsequently, i became very good at playing that game as well...lol.

 

[Psai]

my psych attending told me he was going to give the highest grade that he's ever given a student who is not interested in psych...a 88/100. My fellow classmate who never showed up for rounds, nor did any work received a 99/100 because he told the attending he wanted to go into psych. subsequently, i became very good at playing that game as well...lol.

**** that noise how is that noït the most transparent ploy ever. I've noticed that my classmates say "oh im not sure but I am interested in x field that is related to this rotation". Funny thing though, X seems to change with the clerkship they are on

 

[Kaustikos]

Um, how did you end up in the OR assisting on an epidural case if you were doing a final for a neuro rotation the next day?

Because I was done studying. I didn't even want to study that day.

 

[username456789]

Because I was done studying. I didn't even want to study that day.

I think the question was more along the lines of "why the f*ck is a neurologist in the OR performing an emergent epidural case?"

 

[DermViser]

my psych attending told me he was going to give the highest grade that he's ever given a student who is not interested in psych...a 88/100. My fellow classmate who never showed up for rounds, nor did any work received a 99/100 because he told the attending he wanted to go into psych. subsequently, i became very good at playing that game as well...lol.

Did that classmate actually end up going into Psych? I'll admit your experience is ridiculous. That would increase cynicism in anyone about the clerkship year.

 

[DermViser]

**** that noise how is that noït the most transparent ploy ever. I've noticed that my classmates say "oh im not sure but I am interested in x field that is related to this rotation". Funny thing though, X seems to change with the clerkship they are on

 

[operaman]

I never did the pretending I wanted to do whatever clerkship I was in, but I did make an effort to relate it to my planned field and communicate that I wanted to learn as much as possible on the rotation. I think a lot of faculty are a bit jaded by the many students who already know what they want AND no longer care about anything else. Even now as a fourth year I hear third years saying they plan to blow off X rotation because they only NEED to honor medicine and surgery(ha!).

 

[Kaustikos]

I think the question was more along the lines of "why the f*ck is a neurologist in the OR performing an emergent epidural case?"

Because our neuro rotation offers neurosurgery instead of neuro. Which is what I did.

 

[gujuDoc]

I just PM'd you my thoughts on this. I rarely post anymore but i will for this. I agree with the person that says just say how it relates to the field you want to go in and also how you would like to learn as much as you can regardless of what field you go in bc you know its important to know general medicine.

Secondly, many of you don't truly know til the end so the other way you can play this out is say you would rather not say since you are still keeping all your options open and deciding and that ask the same question next August and you will have an answer but in the meanwhile you just want to learn as much as you can in your limited time on each field. then you don't have to lie to everyone but can still show you are interested.