Helping students: sticky situation

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epsilonprodigy

Physicist Enough
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I recently got emails from 2 students from a rotation a couple of months ago. We had a notoriously malignant chief who made all our lives a living hell the entire time, and seems to have gone completely off the deep end since recently failing to match into fellowship. Apparently, this chief failed both students, going out of his way to submit evals that he ordinarily would not have had to do. This person seems to have serious issues to begin with. For example, he's pulled me aside multiple times to make statements like "you know so-and-so doesn't like you" when said individual has never made any attempt to engage me in conflict. He also forbade me from picking up extra cases with my mentors in my goal subspecialty, claiming it would have caused a "duty hour violation" when I was nowhere near the limit and their service genuinely needed extra hands. I am bitching, I know. But the list goes on.

Back to the students. One was perfectly fine and the other was actualy very good. It's causing them a lot of grief with credits and the like. They each asked me to submit my own eval, as their program has decided to average the chief's with that of another resident. I'd love to help put a stop to this nonsense long-term, but the power differential and the fact that this person can't seem to be reasoned with make it difficult. Still, I would like suggestions on how to tactfully point out to the students' faculty that the chief has a history of stirring up trouble and that the evals really should be taken with a grain of salt.

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As an intern, I had a crazy attending that for whatever reason decided he hated one of our MS3s. The guy was mediocre but not dangerous and certainly not a failing performance. Well, he tried to fail the student.

I ended up talking to the physician clerkship director on the students behalf and it worked out fine for them.

As long as this "chief" is an outlier, the program should be reasonable on the student.
 
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I recently got emails from 2 students from a rotation a couple of months ago. We had a notoriously malignant chief who made all our lives a living hell the entire time, and seems to have gone completely off the deep end since recently failing to match into fellowship. Apparently, this chief failed both students, going out of his way to submit evals that he ordinarily would not have had to do. This person seems to have serious issues to begin with. For example, he's pulled me aside multiple times to make statements like "you know so-and-so doesn't like you" when said individual has never made any attempt to engage me in conflict. He also forbade me from picking up extra cases with my mentors in my goal subspecialty, claiming it would have caused a "duty hour violation" when I was nowhere near the limit and their service genuinely needed extra hands. I am bitching, I know. But the list goes on.

Back to the students. One was perfectly fine and the other was actualy very good. It's causing them a lot of grief with credits and the like. They each asked me to submit my own eval, as their program has decided to average the chief's with that of another resident. I'd love to help put a stop to this nonsense long-term, but the power differential and the fact that this person can't seem to be reasoned with make it difficult. Still, I would like suggestions on how to tactfully point out to the students' faculty that the chief has a history of stirring up trouble and that the evals really should be taken with a grain of salt.
You're literally a hero.
 
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Wow. As others have said, good for you.
 
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Actually, if I recall correctly, that poster is, literally, a heroine.

That's what's up;-)

So, most agree that it would be appropriate to discreetly contact the course director to explain, in addition to writing them each a fair eval? I thought about explaining on the eval comment section, but don't necessarily want a paper trail indicating that I think this person has a personality disorder. It also isn't pertinent to the students' performance itself. I don't want to make a fuss, but I try to maintain a zero-tolerance policy for this kind of crap. Also, one of them wants to go into our specialty, so even an average overall grade could have serious consequences, since you can be blackballed for not honoring in our specialty.



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I think it is fair to write a good eval for the students.
When I had great students I would write a letter detailing their performance.

Whether it would change anything varies.
Lets be honest, clerkships are a crapshoot.
You have attendings that rate everyone 5/5
And attendings that rate everyone 3/5
and some that use the entire scale.

the students got unlucky they got stuck with someone who enjoys using the bottom of the scale.
 
Speaking as a student who got a failing grade in a similar situation (I passed every part of the rotation but grades were averaged in such a way that I failed the whole thing), what you're doing could be life changing for the students. Unjustly failing a rotation could have cost them an entire extra year in med school if repeating the course meant no time to do electives or away rotations, or it could have easily meant they would spend the rest of their careers working in a specialty they never wanted. At the very least they would have had to pay tuition for another two months of med school. Thank you for going out of your way to help break the cycle of abuse that is so prevalent in medicine.
 
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That's what's up;-)

So, most agree that it would be appropriate to discreetly contact the course director to explain, in addition to writing them each a fair eval? I thought about explaining on the eval comment section, but don't necessarily want a paper trail indicating that I think this person has a personality disorder. It also isn't pertinent to the students' performance itself. I don't want to make a fuss, but I try to maintain a zero-tolerance policy for this kind of crap. Also, one of them wants to go into our specialty, so even an average overall grade could have serious consequences, since you can be blackballed for not honoring in our specialty.



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Yes, absolutely talk to the course director, particularly if one of the students is interested in the specialty.
 
I recently got emails from 2 students from a rotation a couple of months ago. We had a notoriously malignant chief who made all our lives a living hell the entire time, and seems to have gone completely off the deep end since recently failing to match into fellowship. Apparently, this chief failed both students, going out of his way to submit evals that he ordinarily would not have had to do. This person seems to have serious issues to begin with. For example, he's pulled me aside multiple times to make statements like "you know so-and-so doesn't like you" when said individual has never made any attempt to engage me in conflict. He also forbade me from picking up extra cases with my mentors in my goal subspecialty, claiming it would have caused a "duty hour violation" when I was nowhere near the limit and their service genuinely needed extra hands. I am bitching, I know. But the list goes on.

Back to the students. One was perfectly fine and the other was actualy very good. It's causing them a lot of grief with credits and the like. They each asked me to submit my own eval, as their program has decided to average the chief's with that of another resident. I'd love to help put a stop to this nonsense long-term, but the power differential and the fact that this person can't seem to be reasoned with make it difficult. Still, I would like suggestions on how to tactfully point out to the students' faculty that the chief has a history of stirring up trouble and that the evals really should be taken with a grain of salt.

This chief is a bully......and the best way to deal with bullies is to kick them in the nuts....HARD ( metaphor, don't actually assault your chief resident, although that would be EPIC)

You go save those medical students. Go talk to whoever is officially in charge of their rotation, be it the clerkship director of the DME or whoever.

On another note, I believe that it is a good idea to let those in power know that this Chief bullies you (re:the cases, the backhanded comments, the like) I had a similar situation with a chief when I was an intern, and it's best to make sure that his voice is not the only one being heard regarding your performance. Whenever this guy talks about you to others, you want them to think "yeah I've been hearing how much of a bully he is to her...." It matters because you do not want to get put on a "performance enhancing plan" or something else bad.

Now i know your sitting there and thinking, "but this guy is the Chief, and he can make my life difficult, I'm afraid......." Well DON"T. Stand up for yourself, or this stuff gets worse.
 
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I dunno I would take caution in a program that tolerates this kind of behavior. I would be super shocked if the clerkship director didn't speak to both the evaluator and evaluated, most well adjust folks know failing people has ramifications. With that said I have been severely punished for sticking up for myself, but never for someone else.
 
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