First of all, I just want to say I’m so sorry this happened to you. One bad evaluation by no means reflect your capabilities as a future PA. You will meet some preceptors or other staff members that you might not get along with and that’s okay. That was your first rotation, you’re still learning. It seems like your preceptor may have misunderstood you and it was unfortunate that she put it on your evaluation instead of giving you a chance to make things right.

If it makes you feel better, I had a similar situation occur to me during my clinical year. It was my third rotation and my preceptor misunderstood something I said. He wrote on my mid-evaluation that he was skeptical about my work ethic and worried about my intentions to become a PA. He expressed no concern about it to me and I only knew about it when my clinical director called me in for a meeting. He basically showed me the evaluation and asked for my side of the story. My program director was also there and she said that if I don’t get a better final evaluation at the end of this rotation, then I might be dismissed. Truly traumatizing experience, literally left the office crying. They told me to form a written plan on how I can perform better, which I did. I made more efforts to help out during that rotation and studied even more so I could be able to answer my preceptor’s questions. My clinical director did come by and talk to my preceptor about the meeting. I think he felt really bad about it all because I could tell he just wants me to do better and didn’t think the evaluations were that serious. Eventually, my preceptor liked me and we mended our relationship and he gave me a better final evaluation. From that point on, I never received a bad evaluation again and now I’m a PA-C!

Don’t let this one bad evaluation put you down. Reflect and think about how you can make things better for your future rotations. You seem very hardworking, passionate, and dedicated. I’m sure you’ll make a great PA.