Day in the Life: Dermatology

Hello and welcome to Medical Mondays! So if you look at my “schedule” of sorts for my second year of residency, you might note that I am hopelessly behind on my Day in the Life posts–I’m catching up on em’ slowly but surely! I’m skipping Evidence-Based Medicine (my least favorite) for the time being to talk about my Dermatology rotation first!

I should note that despite my interest in skin care, I am not in fact a dermatologist. >_>

Day in the Life: Dermatology

I basically split my time between my regular office hours and rotating through the dermatology office. For my regular office hours, my day typically starts at 7:40 and ends at around 5-ish.

9 a.m. – 4-ish p.m.

A full day at dermatology was my shortest day ever in terms of work hours (only 7!!! :O!). While I was at the dermatology office, I worked with a couple different residents and got to see a whole bunch of different skin conditions that I don’t normally see (I’ve mainly only dealt with eczema, acne, and seborrheic keratosis with my patients).

My first afternoon there was not pleasant, mainly because we had a patient with super, super severe pyoderma gangrenosum on her legs. We could smell it from across the office. I will spare you the details, because it is definitely not for the faint of heart. Suffice to say, all the days after that first afternoon were much better.

This was our best friend.

I mostly just got to shadow during this rotation, but I still was able to learn a lot about basic management of skin care concerns and when to (+ when not to) refer. The residents I worked with were all really nice!

• Eczema
• Seborrheic dermatitis
• Seborrheic keratosis
• Vitiligo
• Lichen simplex/aureus
• Bullous pemphigoid
• Morphea
• Alopecia
• Rosacea
• Pyoderma gangrenosum
• Acne
• Psoriasis
• Full body skin checks

With our residency, we get an email every Monday with a list of our names and who’s behind on finishing their office notes for >2 days, >1 week, >2 weeks. We refer to it as the “Weekly Shame Email” because why not. (Our assistant program director isn’t too fond of this name since she’s the one who sends it out, haha.)

Can you tell this doesn’t happen often? :P For the record, I rarely make it onto this list unless one of my preceptors hasn’t signed off on a chart (or sent it back to me to fix).

I actually had this rotation right before my vacation, so it was a pretty glorious time. :P I had time to go to the gym regularly and everything!

• What’s the worst thing you’ve ever smelled? That first afternoon smelled like a rotten fish market that’d been chillin’ out in 100 degree weather for a couple weeks. :'(
• Check out previous Day in the Life’s!