Advice on Moving to your Advanced Derm Program

[FixItUp Chappie]

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Does anybody have any advice for those of us who are about to move to our Advanced derm residency? For many of us, this means moving into an unfamiliar area, away from a "comfort zone" and in some cases involves going across the country. I think it would be nice to break advice down by Derm related tips vs non-Derm related tips.

Also, I welcome any other questions that anyone may have regarding these issues. Any help, advice is most welcome. Thanks.

Derm Related

Which books should we have completely read by the time July 1st comes around? For example, should we have already completed Habif or committed baby Fitz to memory?

Do most Derm residents purchase multiple text books prior to residency or wait and see if the program/pharmaceutical co's provide them.

Same question as above except with journals/subscriptions.

How much Derm Path should we be familiar with on Day 1 - or do most programs start out slow and hit the basics.

What was your orientation like? Did your Institution do a combined (institution-wide) orientation followed by individual (Derm-only) orientation or only Derm only?

On average, how many hours do you study away from the office, per work day? Per weekend/non-work day.

In large cities with multiple derm programs - How often do you interact with other derm residents outside your program? Do you do research/education/grand rounds with them?


Non-Derm related

When did you start looking for apartments/home in your new town? Did you start looking before or after the new PGY-1's match day? Was a long weekend long enough to find an apartment or did you need to take a full week?

Where did you look to try to find a place to live? Did you use a broker, search independently via the Internet/Apartment guides, or use Craigslist?

How did you move your possessions to your advanced program? Did you rent a U-Haul, use a full-service moving company or something else I haven't thought of?

Who do you hang out with/spend your free time with? Mostly by yourself/with family, with your other derm residents, with other non-Derm residents, with non-medical friends?

How much lead time did you give yourself in going from your internship to your advanced program? Did you think this amount of time was adequate?

 

[asmallchild]

My answers attached in red, hopefully they help!

Derm Related

Which books should we have completely read by the time July 1st comes around? For example, should we have already completed Habif or committed baby Fitz to memory?

Depends on person to person but I'd recommend enjoying as much of intern yr as you can, plenty of time to read afterwards

Do most Derm residents purchase multiple text books prior to residency or wait and see if the program/pharmaceutical co's provide them.

Program dependent but we waited as our program provides books

Same question as above except with journals/subscriptions.

Same as above, our program provides the journals

How much Derm Path should we be familiar with on Day 1 - or do most programs start out slow and hit the basics.

Most programs do start out slow but given how much of a learning curve there is, I would definitely recommend taking a 4th year elective in dermpath if offered or perhaps taking an elective in pathology as an intern to get some exposure

What was your orientation like? Did your Institution do a combined (institution-wide) orientation followed by individual (Derm-only) orientation or only Derm only?

Brief institution wide orientation followed by a brief derm orientation, definitely nothing like internship

On average, how many hours do you study away from the office, per work day? Per weekend/non-work day.

Will depend from resident to resident, I like to study every day during the week and leave my weekends free (so roughly 3 hours a night). This may need to increase depending on how I feel my knowledge base is shaping up as I progress

In large cities with multiple derm programs - How often do you interact with other derm residents outside your program? Do you do research/education/grand rounds with them?

Mostly grand rounds although the surrounding programs have taken each others' residents for research/rotations (typically 3rd year residents)

Non-Derm related

When did you start looking for apartments/home in your new town? Did you start looking before or after the new PGY-1's match day? Was a long weekend long enough to find an apartment or did you need to take a full week?

It took me a weekend to look but I tend to make quick decisions. For those who need more time (probably more prudent), I'd recommend early scouting

Where did you look to try to find a place to live? Did you use a broker, search independently via the Internet/Apartment guides, or use Craigslist?

I'm sure I was annoying but I contacted current residents and asked for their recommendation, it does help

How did you move your possessions to your advanced program? Did you rent a U-Haul, use a full-service moving company or something else I haven't thought of?

I used a budget moving company. If you have a lot of valuable stuff, don't try to save here. There is a reason they charge lower prices and they broke nearly EVERYTHING I owned!


Who do you hang out with/spend your free time with? Mostly by yourself/with family, with your other derm residents, with other non-Derm residents, with non-medical friends?

Residency dependent as well but I spent most of my free time with family and non-medical friends. This is definitely a departure from my internship year but may also be different from program to program


How much lead time did you give yourself in going from your internship to your advanced program? Did you think this amount of time was adequate?

About a week of vacation, I would have preferred more but my internship year program did not approve of any more time

 

[FixItUp Chappie]

Thank you for the in-depth reply. Anyone else have any differing/similar experiences? 🙂

 

[starbuckscoffee]

I'd also be interested to hear the answers to these questions!

 

[dermathalon]

To follow suit, my answers are in red as well...I just answered the derm related ones...

Derm Related

Which books should we have completely read by the time July 1st comes around? For example, should we have already completed Habif or committed baby Fitz to memory?

None that you really need to have finished. Most places give you a book to read once you get there. I don't know any one of my co-interns that "committed a book to memory" before starting.

Do most Derm residents purchase multiple text books prior to residency or wait and see if the program/pharmaceutical co's provide them.

I was able to purchase books through an educational account at my internship and so I bought books early. Otherwise, you can wait to show to see which one you prefer and which ones are provided by the program

Same question as above except with journals/subscriptions.

Program provided these journal and you'll get more than you can read. You might need to sign up as a resident for the JID (if not already provided) if you want that one too but you can figure that out once you start.

How much Derm Path should we be familiar with on Day 1 - or do most programs start out slow and hit the basics.

You should know your dermpath cold by the time you start or you will be at a major disadvantage...kidding...you don't need to know anything and the programs will get you going pretty early. How quickly you learn is dependent on how much effort you put in.

What was your orientation like? Did your Institution do a combined (institution-wide) orientation followed by individual (Derm-only) orientation or only Derm only?

Probably depends but we had a derm only orientation but the HR stuff was residency wide.

On average, how many hours do you study away from the office, per work day? Per weekend/non-work day.

Variable depending on the resident (to echo what asmallchild said). I study anywhere from 1 hour to 4 hours (rarely) before and after clinic. On the weekends, it will depend. Some days I will spend a good portion of the day studying (when the wife is doing her own thing) and on others I just spend time doing other fun things.


In large cities with multiple derm programs - How often do you interact with other derm residents outside your program? Do you do research/education/grand rounds with them?

Similar answer to asmallchild