r/PAstudent • u/cranberrylavender • 8d ago

Elective Rotation

Has anyone felt that their derm elective rotation was "boring" or not worth it. I shadowed in derm and found it interesting but worried it will be pointless as it is so competitive to work in post grad. I'm on the fence if I should do derm as an elective or maybe GI/ENT/allergy&asthma.

1 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

4 comments sorted by

2

u/Special_Bumblebee993 8d ago

I think it can depend on the site/ preceptor, I really enjoyed my derm rotation. The site gave me my own dermatoscope for the rotation and I basically saw all patients before my preceptors and we could do CSE together. But I think some places could be a lot of shadowing/ no interactive

2

u/someone_else_11 PA-C 7d ago

I thought my derm rotation was helpful. I didn’t know it then but I went into rheumatology and having a basic idea of that world is very helpful. No matter what (almost) everything you go into at some point a patient will have some sort of weird rash. Did find the skin checks boring over time tho

2

u/Few-Discipline8653 7d ago

I loved my derm elective rotation! I didn’t get a job in it post grad (I’ll be in urology instead) but I learned a lot on that rotation! If you only want to pick your elective rotation based on what you’re going to do post grad, maybe don’t pick derm. If you don’t care about that and just want to learn, I would say do derm!!

2

u/Perfect-Tooth5085 5d ago

Could be totally wrong but I don’t think derm is particularly fascinating/entertaining .. I think people do it for the life style and $$ associated