Are You Now, or Have You Ever Been, a Quack?
Specialists in the field of Internal Medicine (internists) need to be recertified every ten years. This is my tenth year and my first experience with recertification. The Board examination for first-time qualifiers is a two-day test; I have heard that when recertifying it's only one day (I hope that's true). I thought that recertification, while rather annoying, would be a simple matter of showing up and taking the test: I was an optimist. It turns out there's a lot more to it than that, and some of the recertification requirements are downright degrading.
I first realized things were not going to be all that simple when my information package from the Board last year contained order forms for "Self-Evaluation Modules" (a.k.a. home study courses) which recertification candidates were required to complete prior to qualifying - at great personal expense, I might add. I have been struggling with my self-evaluation modules for a year, and no, they're not done yet. I thought that would be the worst of it but this week I received a form I couldn't believe: the Form Attesting Current Appointment. In the upper right-hand corner of the form, boxed much like the warning on a cigarette package, is the following advisory:
This form is not to be completed by the candidate.
You mean I can't give myself a glowing reference? Well, dang!
My medical director has to certify that I am employed and reliable, fill out the form, and send it in. I got a tiny bit of revenge out of this nonsense by attaching a Post-It to the form before putting it on her desk: it read:
Whatever you do, don't tell them about my assault conviction, drug use, credit card scams, arson history or the fact that I like to torture animals.
posted by Dr. Alice at #
