1 Horrible Elective Evaluation

[AsYouWish]

How much will 1 terrible elective evaluation affect me? A preceptor and I really did not get along, and there were several professionalism issues (on his behalf) which I actually would like to take up with the Dean of my school because I do not think my experience was appropriate in any way. But regardless, my other evaluations in that specialty are pretty solid and very favourable, so how will this impact me come match time? I am not interested in this specialty, and will not be applying for it, but how will the bad evaluation affect me for other specialty applications? I'm freaking out here. 

[Lactic Folly]

It would be better if this did not show up on your CaRMS application. Our school had a policy that they could omit isolated unrepresentative comments at their discretion.

 

Is there an overall rotation supervisor who can synthesize all the evaluations into one paragraph?

 

Any legitimate concerns should be documented while your memory of the details is still fresh. Be objective and calm as possible. If the evaluation is inaccurate, it should not be kept, but avoid any perception that it could have been justified or that you are acting defensively in response to the poor evaluation.

[RiceWine]

How much will 1 terrible elective evaluation affect me? A preceptor and I really did not get along, and there were several professionalism issues (on his behalf) which I actually would like to take up with the Dean of my school because I do not think my experience was appropriate in any way. But regardless, my other evaluations in that specialty are pretty solid and very favourable, so how will this impact me come match time? I am not interested in this specialty, and will not be applying for it, but how will the bad evaluation affect me for other specialty applications? I'm freaking out here. 

 

there should people you can speak to? rotation supervisor? director/chair of clerkship. at my school, we have to do that within a timeframe (so do it soon!). Based on my experience though, they can be defensive for the staff (even though the staff is known for professionalism issues in the past). but i think it's worth a try. 

[frozenarbitor]

Write down what happened and speak with the school soon. I agree that school can be defensive for the staff and make it very difficult for you. Present your case objectively rather than trying to accuse anyone of being wrong. Make your priority to clear unjustified evaluation rather than making the preceptor look bad. Talk to a mentor that you trust.

[ploughboy]

Ya, get this off your record or at least addressed somehow.    Nothing worse than being on a rotation with a staff doc that you don't hit it off with about stupid things that don't reflect on your medical knowledge or reflect on patient care.  Don't let this screw up your one chance at CaRMS.

[Ms_Sunshine]

How concerning this is will depend on your school's policy. (For McMaster, your evaluations from elective will not show up anywhere... They get sent to the Electives Chair, who reads it, then they disappear never to be seen again. So, nothing from your electives show up on your transcript.)

[rmorelan]

How concerning this is will depend on your school's policy. (For McMaster, your evaluations from elective will not show up anywhere... They get sent to the Electives Chair, who reads it, then they disappear never to be seen again. So, nothing from your electives show up on your transcript.)

 

same with Western - I don't think that is all that uncommon actually. Usually it is the LOR that provide feedback on what an elective experience was like etc.

[AsYouWish]

Thank you all so much for responding!

The elective was a rural one, and there were multiple issues I would like to bring up even with the college, because the preceptor explicitly "bashed" other doctors in the community, flat out said that he does not "care if the patients get better", and forced me to read his personal complaints to random third parties like the Phoenix airport and the local mall. He left patients waiting for hours* past their appointment times because he was literally making personal calls all day long. Of course I will never take this anywhere past my school. All I care about at this point is getting the evaluation off my record. Is this stuff worth mentioning to my clerkship associate dean? I do not want to be defensive, but I honestly feel like my experience was an absolute nightmare and I do not feel comfortable leaving the situation as is. The things I was "exposed to" on this elective do not sit right with me. Not to mention the fact that I was continuously* reminded of the fact that he only took me on as a student because he was getting paid to do so by the school (given that it was a rural elective). 

[rmorelan]

Thank you all so much for responding!

The elective was a rural one, and there were multiple issues I would like to bring up even with the college, because the preceptor explicitly "bashed" other doctors in the community, flat out said that he does not "care if the patients get better", and forced me to read his personal complaints to random third parties like the Phoenix airport and the local mall. He left patients waiting for hours* past their appointment times because he was literally making personal calls all day long. Of course I will never take this anywhere past my school. All I care about at this point is getting the evaluation off my record. Is this stuff worth mentioning to my clerkship associate dean? I do not want to be defensive, but I honestly feel like my experience was an absolute nightmare and I do not feel comfortable leaving the situation as is. The things I was "exposed to" on this elective do not sit right with me. Not to mention the fact that I was continuously* reminded of the fact that he only took me on as a student because he was getting paid to do so by the school (given that it was a rural elective). 

 

start with your school - at the very least you would want future students to avoid the sorts of problems you are describing. Go from there.

[tigars53]

Good advices from everyone.
If you can't get it off your record though, I don't think it will impact much on your carms. If your other evaluations are good, resident selection comittees are intelligent enough to see there is something wrong with that elective.

Be prepared if they ask about it during interviews. But don't bash the preceptor too much, keep it professional and you should be fine.

[anxious_101]

If your school doesn't show elective evals on your carms transcript, you getting all stressed out over this is futile. At U of T, none of our electives were on the transcript. Heck, I had plenty of what I thought were awkward clinical experiences and preceptors. I even had an elective with a PD that I thought was totally going to do me in (I had even started a thread on that here last year). Anyway, if this isn't even a specialty you're applying for and is not going on your transcript (find out!), then totally don't worry about it. Focus on doing well moving forward - that matters most. 

 

I matched to the program where I thought I had some poor elective experiences. And this is in a specialty that's relatively competitive.