Rank Order List starts tomorrow

So I am currently in the process of figuring out what to rank second, third, fourth. I'll probably try out the chart from Iserson's getting into residency book. It'll be interesting to see how each program scores.

So there's a couple of other students on my derm rotation and they are both applying to ophthalmology which actually pre-match tomorrow. They get to know where they end up sometime after midnight, while most everyone else (like me) won't find out 'til late March. I think urology pre-matches as well.

So one resident mentioned that around this time of year, many 4th year students could be expecting phone calls, emails, etc from multiple residency programs. I am starting to notice that now. One was an invitation for a dinner next month, one was a phone call to see if I had any more questions, and one was a nice gift that I received by UPS.

Dermatology

It's 2009! And it feels like 4th year is going downhill - no more exams, residency applications submitted, almost no more interviews. Just a few more rotations, and then graduation. This month is derm. I figured it'll be a good rotation to have to prepare for family medicine. It's been interesting. It's outpatient clinic at the county hospital and clinic is only in the afternoons with optional 1 hour lecture in the AM. I pretty much started seeing patients from day 1 - even though I knew once I left the patient's room, I wouldn't know what to diagnose the patient with. btw, derm has a lot acronyms - and I'm slowly learning one at a time (ex. SK - seborrheic keratosis). After one week, I'm starting to recognize some of the common derm stuff, but I still haven't seen it all. I'm getting better at describing lesions & making good use of my ruler. The interview/exam is VERY focused - probably about 5 minutes long - but I tend to take my time since everyone's busy seeing other patients. I do notice that patients come in for some of the most minor stuff. I'm surprised that they show up to see a derm for it. For example, freezing off a wart. They do biopsies all the time there and since they're short staffed, if my patient needs the biopsy done, I set up the tray. It's actually good to know what equipment I would need and what forms the patient needs to sign and what forms to fill out to send to the pathologist. I'll probably get to do some biopsies during the rest of the rotation. I would like to get comfortable with procedures.