FEINBERG PAVILION, 5TH FLOOR – General surgery Blue service attending, Dr. Ellis, finished the ten evaluations of the M3s he’s worked with during the last surgery clerkship block, just hours before the 4-week post SHELF deadline. Traditionally, he finishes with minutes to spare, but credits this successful grading session to a new dot-phrase:
Comments for Narrative:
First name (spelled incorrectly) was a good (may omit “good” entirely) member of the surgery team. S/he was on time (which I don’t really know because I always showed up three hours after the students) and present for all surgeries (I assume you were here, though I could have easily mistaken you for a nurse). S/he had a good/adequate/mediocre/average/decent/second-rate/undistinguished/uninspired/pedestrian knowledge base and ability to answer intraoperative questions. S/he needed a lot of help as a camera driver (no qualifiers needed, all med students stink at this). S/he completed all tasks on time (again, I assume, I’ve never looked at a med student note). S/he had communication skills that were below expected for his/her training level.
Confidential Feedback:
See narrative (who cares).
Dr. Ellis admitted that filling out evaluations 4 weeks after the conclusion of an 8 week clerkship was difficult, as he hadn’t worked with some of his students in about 12 weeks prior to thinking about filling out an assessment.
“The honest truth,” Dr. Ellis described to The Flipside, “is that all of my evaluations in the past were more or less the same. To not have to do any additional work outside of the operating whatsoever is my life’s purpose, even when it involves potentially helping those who helped take care of my patients…for free. And I can tell you this because I have tenure!”
The surgery clerkship director was unavailable for comment. Instead, the surgery clerkship coordinator responded to this Flipside reporter by email, with only the following message:
“.surgclerkcomplaintresponse”
Special thanks to Daniel Colon for his contributions to this article.