- Joined
- Mar 1, 2010
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As a former educator, I'm wondering who conceived of the clerkship evaluations for 3rd and 4th year medical school, because the process, at times, seems to border on the absurd. To be fair, I think it works well on the rotations where you are working with one or two preceptors the entire month. In those situations, they actually get to know you and see your body of work, and they see how you're progressing as a clinician. You get meaningful feedback that you can incorporate and display along the way that is not contradictory to the person on your left, and it's plain as day what's expected of you.
Unfortunately, that's not always the case. You're often assigned to a revolving door of residents/attendings who see you for a day or two and then turn in their "assessment" based on god only knows. I assume the negative comments are thrown into a hat while the good ones make their way to the trash bin, and they pull one out for your final grade. Your tuition for the year affords you great educational pearls in the end like "keep reading" and "seems disinterested" and "good student."
But seriously, the pitfalls of this process should be grossly apparent. Some people you work with prefer short and sweet presentations, some are old school and want an extensive H&P, and whoever you're not with at any given moment assumes you're out taking shots at Hooters. In short, your evaluation becomes an average of a dozen first impressions by people who never intended to become educators in the first place, and the result is a comically wide range of opinions. Fortunately, most people understand how arbitrary this is, and so you get 'Honors' or an 'A' 95% of the time. On occasion, however, you find yourself with a grumpy resident (or sociopath) who relishes in the opportunity to flex their muscle and exert some authority.
And don't try to explain yourself. That's incredibly unprofessional.
(Can you tell how much I enjoyed this last rotation?) 4 more to go....
Unfortunately, that's not always the case. You're often assigned to a revolving door of residents/attendings who see you for a day or two and then turn in their "assessment" based on god only knows. I assume the negative comments are thrown into a hat while the good ones make their way to the trash bin, and they pull one out for your final grade. Your tuition for the year affords you great educational pearls in the end like "keep reading" and "seems disinterested" and "good student."
But seriously, the pitfalls of this process should be grossly apparent. Some people you work with prefer short and sweet presentations, some are old school and want an extensive H&P, and whoever you're not with at any given moment assumes you're out taking shots at Hooters. In short, your evaluation becomes an average of a dozen first impressions by people who never intended to become educators in the first place, and the result is a comically wide range of opinions. Fortunately, most people understand how arbitrary this is, and so you get 'Honors' or an 'A' 95% of the time. On occasion, however, you find yourself with a grumpy resident (or sociopath) who relishes in the opportunity to flex their muscle and exert some authority.
And don't try to explain yourself. That's incredibly unprofessional.
(Can you tell how much I enjoyed this last rotation?) 4 more to go....
