Midway
A couple of midpoints lately. First, I'm halfway through 3rd year!!! About a year ago, I couldn't have imagined that I would be at this point. Second, I'm halfway through the Family Medicine clerkship, which I'm really enjoying right now. I just had a meeting with the one of the faculty in Middletown, Connecticut for my mid-clerkship evaluation, which includes me filling out a self-assessment form to see if my perception of my performance jives with everyone else's.
I decided to change strategies this time around. Typically, third years students go into these evaluations with a modest assessment of their own abilities. This underestimation usually prompts encouragement from the evaluator "There there you're doing just fine, you're doing great," allowing the student to emerge from the meeting unscathed.
I've done pretty well during my time here in Connecticut, seeing patients independently, coming up with diagnoses and treatment plans, my H&P (History and Physical) writeups and my presentations are becoming more consistent, so I'm feeling a little more confident in my abilities. So...I wonder, instead, what would happen if I went in with a bit of an attitude:
Dr. Smith: So, Mike - how do you think your performance has been thus far?
Mikey: The questions is, "Do I have a God Complex?"
Dr. Smith: Well, actually, what I'm ask-
Mikey: Which makes me wonder whether you have any idea what it took for me to get this prestigious clerkship in Middletown, Connecticut to begin with.
Dr. Smith: ...I thought it was because you had a car.
Mikey: Or whether you have the vaguest clue as to how gifted someone has to be to make the drive from Boston to Middletown.
Dr. Smith: Well, I understand that New Englanders are bad drivers and all, but...
Mikey: I've survived five years in graduate school hell. I'm a card carrying blood donor of the American Red Cross. I won a coloring contest once in grade school, and I make a great apple pie.
So, I ask you, when the patient sees me walk into the examination room and they drop to their knees and pray to God that I prescribe antibiotics for a runny nose that they've had for 45 minutes, who do you think they're praying to? If you're looking for God, he was in Examination Room number 3, and he likes his ego to be stroked.
You ask me if I have a God Complex?
Dr. Smith: Well, actually, I -
Mikey: LET ME TELL YOU SOMETHING.
Dr. Smith: (stunned silence)
Dr. Smith promised me that my evaluation would be unique compared to those he'd written for other med students. ROCK!!! My plan worked.
I decided to change strategies this time around. Typically, third years students go into these evaluations with a modest assessment of their own abilities. This underestimation usually prompts encouragement from the evaluator "There there you're doing just fine, you're doing great," allowing the student to emerge from the meeting unscathed.
I've done pretty well during my time here in Connecticut, seeing patients independently, coming up with diagnoses and treatment plans, my H&P (History and Physical) writeups and my presentations are becoming more consistent, so I'm feeling a little more confident in my abilities. So...I wonder, instead, what would happen if I went in with a bit of an attitude:
Dr. Smith: So, Mike - how do you think your performance has been thus far?
Mikey: The questions is, "Do I have a God Complex?"
Dr. Smith: Well, actually, what I'm ask-
Mikey: Which makes me wonder whether you have any idea what it took for me to get this prestigious clerkship in Middletown, Connecticut to begin with.
Dr. Smith: ...I thought it was because you had a car.
Mikey: Or whether you have the vaguest clue as to how gifted someone has to be to make the drive from Boston to Middletown.
Dr. Smith: Well, I understand that New Englanders are bad drivers and all, but...
Mikey: I've survived five years in graduate school hell. I'm a card carrying blood donor of the American Red Cross. I won a coloring contest once in grade school, and I make a great apple pie.
So, I ask you, when the patient sees me walk into the examination room and they drop to their knees and pray to God that I prescribe antibiotics for a runny nose that they've had for 45 minutes, who do you think they're praying to? If you're looking for God, he was in Examination Room number 3, and he likes his ego to be stroked.
You ask me if I have a God Complex?
Dr. Smith: Well, actually, I -
Mikey: LET ME TELL YOU SOMETHING.
I Am God.
Dr. Smith: (stunned silence)
*******
Dr. Smith promised me that my evaluation would be unique compared to those he'd written for other med students. ROCK!!! My plan worked.
posted by Mikey at 7:00 PM
4 Comments:
This is how I'm going in to every evaluation from this point forward.
I sense greatness in you, Grasshopper.
If only I had adopted this approach years ago...
Then you must tell us sometime if unique is a good thing or a bad thing. I put that word up there with challenging, and xncgsiy.
Also, if you have it kicking around, you must show us that winning coloring contest entry.
Or a reasonable hand-drawn fascimile.
Also, if you have it kicking around, you must show us that winning coloring contest entry.
Well, unfortunately, that winning entry has been lost to time. Although I must say that I only won that week because the reigning champion, Sabrina J, was out sick that day. Not that I'm sorry about it. As a matter of fact, I still don't give a wdnsf. A win is a win.
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