The following are correspondence received from 2nd 3rd and 4th year students:
“To Whom It May Concern:
I am writing this letter to inform you of a situation at KCOM which was not handled well and which I hope will not be repeated in the future. The situation in question started in January when I received my 5th place rotations choice, Dallas, TX. In February Dr. Rawlins informed me that Dallas was being dropped as a site and that I would be given my 1st choice for rotations, St. Barnabus, NY. At this time I was told that not all of my rotations would be able to be provided at St. Barnabus and that I would have to spend 3 rotations at a different hospital, within commuting distance, in NY. I was excited to be going to New York. About a month later I went up to Dr. Rawlins’ office to inquire about which hospitals in NY I would spend those three rotation sites. I was informed that I would be splitting my time between Cape Girardeau and New York. This was news to me since nowhere had I agreed to spend time in Missouri, nor had I expressed an interest in going to Missouri as an option. This information was not told to me by Dr. Rawlins; instead, I was informed by her assistant when I had gone up to see if everything was running smoothly with my rotations.
A week later I scheduled a meeting with Dr. Rollins and it was confirmed that I would be spending some of my rotations in Cape Girardeau. I was shocked that I had been scheduled at a site without even being asked if this were acceptable. I left the meeting disturbed. After a couple of weeks of thinking through my situation I wrote a letter asking that I only be assigned a rotations site in one geographical region. I postulated reasons why I wanted to be in only one region and asked for a timely reply. I was given this reply but the reply basically said that they would try to get me all of my rotations in NY; but, if they were not able to get all of the rotations in NY then I would be sent to different geographical regions. This letter also stated that I would not know what my schedule would be until sometime in June. In other words, I would not know where I would be going for 3rd and 4th year until a month and a half before I would have to be there. This was simply unacceptable.
My patience reached its limit on May 1st and I wrote a letter to Dr. Kuchera, Dr. McGovern, and Dean Gaber asking them for their help and also issuing a threat if I did not get a response. On May 2nd I submitted a letter asking that I be placed at Riverview, in Detroit. Later that day I was called into Dean Gaber’s office and was told that I was going to Oakland. I was happy to finally know where I would be spending the next two years of life. The interesting thing is that I had never mentioned Oakland, never told the school that I would like to go there, never intimated that Oakland was an interest. Regardless, when push comes to shove I got a site. I hated that I had to fight so hard just to find a place to continue my education. I hated that I did not know where I would be going for my rotations until May.
So, this is my letter asking for nothing except that no other student is treated the way that I was treated. “
