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.