Recommendations for Dermatology Memoir

[OrangeCaramel]

tl;dr I want some book recommendations by people in derm to get a feel of the field, since I have very little exposure and I just want to get a general background before I go chasing attendings to shadow/do research. POC and/or women authors are especially appreciated, only because I am WOC and I would find it slightly more relatable, but all suggestions are wonderful.

I've shadowed many different types of doctors, seen a variety of surgeries, and I have eliminated a lot of specialties (read: almost every surgical specialty). Most of this is due to this broad internship I did a few years back where I briefly rotated in almost every department at my local hospital. Despite this, I never rotated in derm. I have had little exposure to the field, and I just want to get a glimpse into the field before I start talking to dermatologists at my school. I just want a little exposure because I don't want the end of 3rd year to be my first exposure (I'm a little neurotic about planning out my future choices).

On a side note, two books have already convinced me to not be an anesthesiologist or plastic surgeon, respectively by "This Won't Hurt a bit" by Michelle Au and "Surgery of the Soul," by the late Nobel laureate Joseph Murray. Both were great reads, but these books helped me realize some deal-breakers in these specialities.

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[asmallchild]

tl;dr I want some book recommendations by people in derm to get a feel of the field, since I have very little exposure and I just want to get a general background before I go chasing attendings to shadow/do research. POC and/or women authors are especially appreciated, only because I am WOC and I would find it slightly more relatable, but all suggestions are wonderful.

I've shadowed many different types of doctors, seen a variety of surgeries, and I have eliminated a lot of specialties (read: almost every surgical specialty). Most of this is due to this broad internship I did a few years back where I briefly rotated in almost every department at my local hospital. Despite this, I never rotated in derm. I have had little exposure to the field, and I just want to get a glimpse into the field before I start talking to dermatologists at my school. I just want a little exposure because I don't want the end of 3rd year to be my first exposure (I'm a little neurotic about planning out my future choices).

On a side note, two books have already convinced me to not be an anesthesiologist or plastic surgeon, respectively by "This Won't Hurt a bit" by Michelle Au and "Surgery of the Soul," by the late Nobel laureate Joseph Murray. Both were great reads, but these books helped me realize some deal-breakers in these specialities.

I unfortunately don't have any I could recommend.

I can very strongly recommend that you keep an open mind when selecting a specialty and to shadow a couple of times with different attendings across different practice settings (which it sounds like you are planning to do)

I would not rely solely on what you read in books to rule in or rule out a field

 

[reno911]

I don't know of any for general dermatology, and I'm not even sure one exists.

I would think that the main reason why someone would write a book like this is to detail some sort of struggle or difficulty inherent to the career that the author faced.

I'm not saying that a derm career is always without struggles, it's just that there are fewer. And those that exist are probably not going to be things that other docs or even people in general will relate to well.

If you do ever come across such a book you should post it, because at the very least I'd be interested in flipping through it.

 

[sore eye asses]

The Colony, Tayman
Go, Dog! Go, P.D. Eastman

 

[deleted648625]

tl;dr I want some book recommendations by people in derm to get a feel of the field, since I have very little exposure and I just want to get a general background before I go chasing attendings to shadow/do research. POC and/or women authors are especially appreciated, only because I am WOC and I would find it slightly more relatable, but all suggestions are wonderful.

I've shadowed many different types of doctors, seen a variety of surgeries, and I have eliminated a lot of specialties (read: almost every surgical specialty). Most of this is due to this broad internship I did a few years back where I briefly rotated in almost every department at my local hospital. Despite this, I never rotated in derm. I have had little exposure to the field, and I just want to get a glimpse into the field before I start talking to dermatologists at my school. I just want a little exposure because I don't want the end of 3rd year to be my first exposure (I'm a little neurotic about planning out my future choices).

On a side note, two books have already convinced me to not be an anesthesiologist or plastic surgeon, respectively by "This Won't Hurt a bit" by Michelle Au and "Surgery of the Soul," by the late Nobel laureate Joseph Murray. Both were great reads, but these books helped me realize some deal-breakers in these specialities.

Would you mind elaborating on your deal breakers for these? I am also URM and trying to decide between derm, surgery, anesthesia, as well as some others

 

[OrangeCaramel]

Would you mind elaborating on your deal breakers for these? I am also URM and trying to decide between derm, surgery, anesthesia, as well as some others

I'm sure my dealbreakers are not the same for everybody, and like @asmallchild mentioned, books cannot solely determine interest in a specialty. However, I was put off by the fact that Dr. Au, as an anesthesiologist, is essentially in charge of "pulling the plug" on people and involved in the decision making of DNRs. These are just things I personally don't want to deal with in practice. I remember she had a story where she literally pulled the plug on a patient in front of his family, and the family had to watch him suffer from hyperventilation (? don't remember exactly what happened, but the pressure between the lungs and outside caused him to have weird breathing reflexes in his last moments of life). This is just part of the job to other people, but this helped me realize I would prefer to work with a healthier population. I'm going to guess that many patients don't die bc of skin conditions. Skin cancer, maybe. But even so, skin cancer has one of the lowest percentages of deaths compared to other cancers.

As for Dr. Murray's book, I already figured I'm not an OR person, and while Dr. Murray's stories were inspiring, I wasn't really inspired to live my life in the OR. Just a personal preference.

 

[deleted648625]

I'm sure my dealbreakers are not the same for everybody, and like @asmallchild mentioned, books cannot solely determine interest in a specialty. However, I was put off by the fact that Dr. Au, as an anesthesiologist, is essentially in charge of "pulling the plug" on people and involved in the decision making of DNRs. These are just things I personally don't want to deal with in practice. I remember she had a story where she literally pulled the plug on a patient in front of his family, and the family had to watch him suffer from hyperventilation (? don't remember exactly what happened, but the pressure between the lungs and outside caused him to have weird breathing reflexes in his last moments of life). This is just part of the job to other people, but this helped me realize I would prefer to work with a healthier population. I'm going to guess that many patients don't die bc of skin conditions. Skin cancer, maybe. But even so, skin cancer has one of the lowest percentages of deaths compared to other cancers.

As for Dr. Murray's book, I already figured I'm not an OR person, and while Dr. Murray's stories were inspiring, I wasn't really inspired to live my life in the OR. Just a personal preference.

Thank you for your thoughts! I ought to give them a read myself.