Medical school and residency are veritable gauntlets, and academic study, clinical rounds (and related examinations), and didactics are hurdles that you must clear to complete your residency and pursue your medical career. Within each of these areas of your medical training, you may encounter problems with which Attorney-Advisor Joseph D. Lento can assist.
The Lento Law Firm Team has helped many medical residents resolve issues that threatened their performance record, reputation, and future job prospects. We can do the same for you.
Medical Residency Blurs the Lines Between Academic Learning, Clinical Rotations, and Didactic Study
In medical school, there is a fairly clear differentiation between academic learning and clinical rotations. In most cases, the medical student completes multiple years of strictly academic work (and labs) before entering a clinical environment.
By the time they become a resident, the medical student has already completed at least a year (or perhaps a semester) of clinical rotations, and their residency is primarily a clinical experience. Yet, the resident continues to prepare for their Step exam and board certification exams and continues to engage in other areas of academic study.
Making residency even more complicated, you likely have weekly didactics in which you must absorb concepts, participate in discussion, and perhaps even present your own findings. Though a resident must balance these three aspects of their training at once, we will review the challenges that can arise in each facet of your residency—and explain how the Lento Law Firm can assist you with each respective problem.
Academic Challenges That You May Face During Medical Residency (Including Allegations of Misconduct)
Literature from the University of Iowa's Emergency Medicine Advanced Practice Provider Residency notes that, before one can graduate from the program, they must meet certain academic (and quasi-academic) benchmarks, including:
- Applying learned medical knowledge appropriately
- Completing “all educational activities” required by program administrators
- Completing “assignments”
From filling out patient charts to completing annual exams administered by the hospital in which you are completing your residency, there are several aspects of your residency that qualify as academic. If your program determines that you've received prohibited assistance in completing academic aspects of your residency, it may accuse you of misconduct.
A residency program may play a role in any academic issues you've had during residency, including by:
- Teaching academic concepts in a deficient manner
- Failing to clearly explain prohibited behaviors
- Failing to provide ample study time to residents
- Failing to put forth a good-faith effort to help the resident address performance deficiencies
- Failing to accommodate any behavioral or learning disabilities you have
- Inaccurately assessing your performance, or allowing bias to affect the evaluation process
Residents may also find it challenging to study for the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) while meeting the demands of residency.
Your residency program should give you reasonable time and resources to meet all the academic demands of residency. If it has failed to do so, we may cite this failure as we work to resolve your academic residency issue.
How Medical Residency Programs May Handle Academic Difficulty and Alleged Academic Misconduct
The University of Iowa Emergency Medicine Residency's literature states clearly that “If educational activities, patient follow-ups, procedure logs, duty hours, and patient documentation are consistently not performed in acceptable manner resident remediation will be required.”
Remediation (i.e., retaking residency rotations or blocks) is typically the least harmful consequence of academic issues in residency. Continued or severe struggles with academic concepts or performance could trigger:
- A mandatory leave from the residency program, which may reflect poorly on your record with future employers
- Suspension from the residency program
- Dismissal from the residency program
Any of these potential sanctions could have a significant and lasting impact on your goals in medicine. Certification boards and prospective employers may view formal action related to academic misconduct or hardship as a knock against you.
At the University of Washington's medical residency programs, residents face both formative evaluation and summative evaluation. A summative evaluation grades the resident's progress against universal benchmarks and is the basis for determining whether a resident progresses to the next rotation.
It is in your interest to maintain a steady pace toward graduation by avoiding remediation. It is just as important that you avoid any formal sanctions for alleged misconduct. Our
How the Lento Law Firm Can Help With Academic Issues During Residency
Attorney Joseph Lento and his team tailor their services to the resident's unique circumstances. When it comes to cases of academic hardship or alleged academic misconduct, we may assist you by:
- Helping you secure accommodations that would improve your ability to complete the academic aspects of your residency
- Contesting a pending remediation
- Petitioning to change a test score or evaluation
- Defending you against any allegations of academic wrongdoing
Each resident we represent requires different services. Our team will tailor its approach to meet your needs. We may negotiate a resolution with the hospital's Office of General Counsel (OGC), which may have broad discretion over resident issues.
Whatever the nature of your academic residency issue, our team is here to fight for you.
Clinicals Are the Foundation of Your Residency
We'll now shift our focus from the academic aspects of your residency to clinicals, which incorporate academic elements but are something far greater. Your clinical rotations will require you to:
- Develop active communication with patients
- Apply academic concepts in a real-world clinical setting
- Interact professionally with superiors, peers, and subordinates
- Absorb medical practices and concepts on the fly
- Maintain composure in stressful situations
As Johns Hopkins Medicine explains, clinical rotations focus on specific practice areas, and an entire rotation may generally last one year. Within that year, you'll have sub-rotations that generally last a few months each. However, each residency program and medical specialty will have its own way of doing things.
Challenges That Residents May Face During Clinicals
Since we have discussed the academic difficulties that can plague residents, let's consider some issues that are unique to clinical rotations. Any of these issues may prevent you from progressing normally through your residency. The Journal of Education and Health Promotion states that clinical challenges for residents include:
- A highly complex learning environment in which residents are trying to learn and apply concepts while caring for real patients
- Having to learn from instructors who are actively involved in caregiving, meaning that the resident rarely receives the instructor's full attention
- A generally stressful and chaotic work environment
- Feelings of vulnerability stemming from the resident's relative lack of status, knowledge, and experience in the clinical setting
The financial pressures that most residents face may only exacerbate the challenges of clinical rotations.
How Do Residency Programs Handle Shortcomings During Clinicals?
Here is an example of a resident evaluation form, which may be similar to a form you'd see in your own residency program. As the form shows, a resident can be evaluated negatively for a perceived:
- Failure to grasp and apply learned medical concepts
- Failure to receive feedback
- Poor communication with patients, peers, or superiors
- Lack of medical competence
- Bad attitude, which falls under the umbrella of “unprofessionalism”
- A shortcoming of any other sort
Evaluation forms are highly detailed, illustrating the intense scrutiny that residents face during clinical rotations. Negative evaluations, let alone acute allegations of unprofessionalism or misconduct, can threaten your progress through residency.
If you receive one or more negative evaluations that your residency program considers to be a serious failure, you may:
- Have to repeat a clinical rotation, potentially prolonging your completion of residency
- Face probation
- Face suspension
- Face dismissal
These are realistic outcomes, as Johns Hopkins Medicine explains that it will dismiss residents for performance, academic, or ethical shortcomings.
How the Lento Law Firm Can Help You Overcome Challenges During Clinical Rotations
Our firm can provide essential services to help rectify a problem you face during clinicals. How, exactly, we assist you will depend on the nature of the problem.
Residents at Marshall University have a right to due process and can appeal a number of decisions that adversely affect their standing as a resident. Your residency program may afford you similar rights, and our firm will review your program's policies to identify your options.
Attorney-Advisor Joseph Lento and his team may assist you by:
- Appealing a decision by your residency program: We may appeal an evaluation or progression decision, ruling of probation, suspension, or dismissal, or another decision that has adversely affected you.
- Negotiating with your residency program's Office of General Counsel (OGC): Negotiating with a residency program's attorney (Office of General Counsel) may be the most direct, effective means of resolving a clinical issue.
- Identifying another solution to your clinical issue: Our firm believes that there is a solution for every residency issue, even if that solution is not immediately obvious.
Our Resident Defense Team has extensive experience finding solutions in a variety of unique circumstances. We'll rely on our experience, rapport with residency programs, and legal knowledge to seek the right solution for you.
Didactics: An Important (If Ungraded) Step in Your Medical Residency
Didactics are a weekly educational session common among medical residency programs. These meetings:
- Allow residents to receive specific instruction, often from guest lecturers
- Are an important bridge between academic concepts and clinical applications
- Are generally mandatory
Didactics are generally not graded, though each program has its own policies. If you do receive a grade for participation in didactics, it may be on a Pass/Fail scale.
Challenges That May Jeopardize Your Performance During Didactics
Over the course of your residency, didactics may consume a substantial portion of your time. As the University of Connecticut Health explains, residents must attend a variety of didactic sessions covering a variety of topics. You may struggle with:
- Grasping the continuous stream of topics covered in didactics
- The way that information is presented during didactics
- A lack of one-on-one instruction
- Presenting your own work during didactics, which is sometimes required
Struggling during didactics may not carry the same stakes as struggling academically or in clinicals. Still, you want to succeed in didactics, especially if you are evaluated in any way for your didactic performance.
Potential Consequences of Struggling During Didactics
Even if you do not face remediation, suspension, or dismissal for your performance in didactics, issues in didactic sessions could have a compounding effect. If you fail to grasp the concepts taught or reinforced in didactics, you may:
- Fail to apply those concepts during clinicals, potentially resulting in a poor evaluation
- Fall behind your peers who are able to learn and apply valuable information learned during didactics
- Waste time and effort during didactics that, if you had proper accommodations, would be time well spent
Each medical residency program takes a different approach to didactics. Our team will learn why you are struggling with didactics, review your school's options, and pursue the resolution that will most benefit you.
How the Lento Law Firm Team Will Address Your Didactic Residency Issue
If certain conditions are preventing your success in didactics, our team will work to fix the problem. Whether you need teaching materials issued in an alternate manner, preferential seating, one-on-one instruction, or other accommodations to make the most of didactic learning, we'll work to negotiate a resolution with your residency program.
Call the Lento Law Firm Today to Get Capable Assistance from a Team That Fights for Residents' Rights
Medical residency is complex by nature, as are the problems that arise during a resident's training. Our firm has worked diligently to understand the issues that medical residents face, and also to understand the many solutions to those issues.
Attorney-Advisor Joseph Lento and his team will work quickly to resolve the issue that is holding back your performance in residency. Whether you have been accused of wrongdoing, are struggling to perform up to your standards, or are facing another type of problem, we're here to assist.
Call the Lento Law Firm today at 888-535-3686 or provide your case details online. You've come this far in your medical career, don't let opportunities go to waste because you choose not to ask for help.
