Quoted: negative comment appearing on MSPE

Doodledog

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This is a follow-up to a post I made here a few months ago.

A few months ago, on my OB rotation, I made the poor choice of not attending a required lecture immediately preceding the shelf exam. The clerkship director found out, and manually changed my grade for the clerkship from honors to high pass. After realizing the error of my ways and profusely apologizing to her, and after some cajoling from other members of the administration, she changed it back to honors (I had perfect evals and honored the shelf). I thought we'd left things on even terms

What I didn't realize at the time, is that when she went to change my grade, she added comments to the "Required summary of performance for use in Dean's letter" section of the eval. Now, on reviewing my dean's letter, I've found that her comments have found their way into the section describing my clinical evaluations. It now reads as follows:

"X was an excellent medical student. He/she was noted to be very intelligent and to have excellent reasoning ability. He/she was very compassionate with patients and had good communication skills. His/her presentation was excellent. He/she was an excellent assistant in surgery and had very good instincts in that regard. He/she will do well in his her chosen field. *--X did very well during his Ob/Gyn rotation and earned
Honors in the course. However, on the last week of the clerkship, he/she decided to not attend mandatory student lectures. In the discussions with him/her about failing attend a mandatory educational activity, he/she demonstrated significant disrespect towards the clerkship director (???). Ultimately, to his/her credit, he/she did apologize and seemed to recognize his/her significant deficit in professionalism, attendance and dependability. As a result of this recognition, his/her final course grade was allowed to
stand--*"

Our student manual states that "professionalism" issues would only by included in the MSPE if there are multiple comments that form a trend. At no other time in my career has anyone had anything but positive things to say about my level of professionalism. In fact, descriptions from other clerkships directly contradict the comment, and are on the whole immensely positive. I honored almost every clerkship in 3rd year.

I just finished talking to my application adviser, who is really worked up over this. She feels that this will effectively kill my application. I've brought the subject up with the person responsible for writing my dean's letter, but she refuses to alter it (Even though it's evident it has already been edited to a degree, as the original comments are far more scathing) Is this the case? From the PD's point of view, would a comment like this land an otherwise strong application in the trash?

I get it, I messed up. I should've gone to lecture, I didn't. I crossed the wrong person (I was at no point disrespectful: she asked why I didn't go and I told her in an objective, measured way). Now it seems like that one person is going to destroy my career and my chances of matching at a halfway decent program.

I'm not a PD, that's the other person who moderates this forum, aPD. However, from my perspective this would be a major red flag. If your application was otherwise strong and you had letters making it clear you were not unprofessional, I think you'd still be asked to interview. However, at the interview, I expect it would come up, especially with the PD where you're interviewing. As always in such situations, a very professional response would be needed that is profusely apologetic and non-accusatory towards the clerkship director.

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If what is said in your MSPE is clearly contrary to what is said in the student manual, you need to work on getting the MSPE revised as soon as possible - today if possible. This is certainly the most important and urgent thing you have to do. Get your application adviser on the case, plus anyone else at your school who has a role in advocating for students. You need together to get the earliest appointment possible with the Dean to get this resolved.
 
I agree with Tildy. It may affect your ability to get an interview at all from tip top programs. They may have so many applicants, that anyone with a problem at all is dropped. Many other programs will look at a single event like this, interview you, and either ask you about it or (are you ready for a huge secret) expect you to bring it up yourself. When I interview someone with a problem like this, I usually want to know if they "get it" or not, and I might try to get at this by asking "So, what challenges have you faced?". I might just ask straight out.

It also will affect you more if you're applying to OB. If not, PD's might be willing to ignore it as an outlier.

You definitely want to come across as "I screwed up, and I learned my lesson". I would not try to suggest that they overreacted, even if true.

If what is said in your MSPE is clearly contrary to what is said in the student manual, you need to work on getting the MSPE revised as soon as possible - today if possible. This is certainly the most important and urgent thing you have to do. Get your application adviser on the case, plus anyone else at your school who has a role in advocating for students. You need together to get the earliest appointment possible with the Dean to get this resolved.

This is a double edged sword. First of all, MSPE's are going out in 2 weeks so you have little time. Second, this could inflame the issue further. The fact of the matter is that the MSPE is accurate. You skipped the lecture. Your grade was lowered because of it. The clerkship director thought you were unprofessional / rude (that is their opinion). You apologized, and they re-raised your grade. The dean is probably required to report this.
 
This is a double edged sword. First of all, MSPE's are going out in 2 weeks so you have little time. Second, this could inflame the issue further. The fact of the matter is that the MSPE is accurate. You skipped the lecture. Your grade was lowered because of it. The clerkship director thought you were unprofessional / rude (that is their opinion). You apologized, and they re-raised your grade. The dean is probably required to report this.


aPD's advice should have greater influence with the OP, as aPD is the insider who gives great advice and makes decisions on residencies, directly relevant in this case.

However -

1. The OP reports "Our student manual states that "professionalism" issues would only by included in the MSPE if there are multiple comments that form a trend". If that is an accurate reporting by the OP with nothing in the student manual to contradict it which applies in this case, and there was only this one "professionalism" incident in the OP's time at med school, then the phrase "significant deficit in professionalism" must be removed from the MSPE, according to the school's own published policies. (I do recognise that this entirely depends on the OP having accurately represented the situation.)

2. This incident could be fully and accurately reported in the MSPE in a much more neutral manner:

"X did very well during his/her Ob/Gyn rotation. In the last week of the clerkship, he/she decided to not attend a mandatory student lecture. Following discussions with the clerkship director, he/she apologised, recognizing the need for attendance and dependability. His/her final course grade was honours*"

3. The clerkship director has refused to change the comment, but the MSPE goes out from the school, not the clerkship director. The school and the Dean need to ensure the MSPE is accurate, but also want their med students to match, and match well. So I don't see what harm there is in asking whoever in the school is in charge of the MSPE (ultimately, the Dean) to change this one paragraph to something less damaging, such as the para suggested above. Is there any chance asking for this change will make things worse for the OP?

4. I agree there is very little time to sort this out. But there is still time.

5. I agree that if the matter is raised in interviews, "I screwed up and learnt my lesson" is absolutely the right approach.
 
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