Hello everyone, I’m JR1 of Derma from an premium institute in South India.
I took Derma because i was not interested in any other branch during counseling, it was one of the most sought after branch, so i took it. So i choosed derma as a branch of exclusion.
But it has been 5 months into residency, and i have not developed any interest in branch. I had no exposure for Derma in UG.
I took this branch because it was in trend, and less hectic.
AFTER entering into residency i started missing core clinical knowledge of MBBS, i miss the pathophysiology of diseases, i miss pharmacology, i miss core concept of internal medicine, i miss the Patient care, i miss the approach to make a diagnosis.
Now my mind keep thinking about cons of Derma which i felt are
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I could have got medicine/surgery at much better college than college in which I’m doing derma.
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Derma is least respected clinical branch. Even after taking this sought-after branch, still I don’t get that mutual respect from my medicine and surgery colleagues. They consider Derma as a inferior and not so important branch ( to the some extent it’s true though). So it overall lead to development of inferiority complex.
My NEET rank was 6 times Better than my surgical branch colleagues, but still I’m feeling inferiority complex.
- No satisfaction because most of the skin condition can be treated by non dermat people, most of the condition are non treatable and recurrent.
Most of the condition require same set of treatment including Steroids, moisturizer, antimicrobial. No important or life saving procedure done in derma.
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Even after so much compromises, job opportunities are very few. So if you have no family background it will be very difficult to establish. Private practice take time to pick up. So we need a job for almost 2 years till over practice establish. But sadly no jobs available.
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To much to read unnecessary things and rare diseases. And even after reading so much of the information, treatment remain same that’s Steroids and moisturizer. So derma is academically and clinically not satisfying.
In medicine/ surgery, you have clinical application of what you read, it help in betterment of Patient. But in derma 90% syllabus is useless. You won’t believe derma has 4 volume of textbook called Rook. Apart from that there is seprate book for Leprosy ( which is almost eliminated) and STD.
- Most of the Dermatologist are acting as clown, working as a glorified beauty parlour. Everyone is practicing cosmetology including dentist and parlour aunty. it leads to deterioration of the image in public front. So there is no good proud full future in cosmetology.
I hate Doing comedones and milia extraction in minor OT. My self-respect and pride melt down while doing this…
- Last most important point, Derma can bore You to death… you will be free most of the time. Duty hours are only 5-6 hours in residency. So you will spend 18 hours alone. Now if you don’t have Freind, family or girlfriend/BF with you, it will be very difficult to timepass. Your colleagues from other clinical branches will enjoy their ward duties, and you will be alone scrolling mobile whole day. And if city is not good ( like Delhi, Mumbai, hyderabad like) it will further make your life difficult.
So that’s the reason i want to quite Derma, but it’s not possible as i have to pay money.
Derma is not a branch for toppers. It’s branch for persons who just wants to sleep whole day and wants to enjoy on Dad’s money.
Now if given chance I’ll prefer any clinical branch (apart from Radio, anesthesia because i need Patient interaction) over Derma. I’ll choose Opthalmology over Derma, because at least they do some kind of serious stuff which cannot be done by anyone else and they also have much higher respect and Patient satisfaction.