Career Choice: My Interest in the Dermatology Field

The career choice in the medical field that interests me the most is the Dermatology field. Naturally, I have the interest of becoming a dermatologist. Dermatologists diagnose and treat the skin, hair, and nail conditions and diseases they may have. Some specific examples of work that is done in this field are helping teenagers with acne, treating tumors or identifying skin cancer, helping patients by treating them if they have inflammatory skin disorders, or something as simple as hair loss. Those are some examples of what a dermatologist does in his/her career.

What is the journey or path to become a dermatologist?

The educational requirements one needs to be a dermatologist are at least a bachelor’s degree from a college or university. Then, a four-year medical degree followed by a three year residency program in the dermatology field. After education, a board certification is needed and a state medical license. Continuing education to maintain your license is also mandatory. Lastly, a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) registration is needed to prescribe controlled substances. A dermatologist’s working conditions is having interpersonal relationships with staff and patients through real life, phone, emails, letters, etc. They work indoors wearing safety attire like gloves and masks protecting themselves from patients who may have infections. Dermatologists usually work forty hours or more and maybe on-call for patient emergencies. They have to be extremely responsible since a mistake of theirs could affect a patient’s health drastically. Some places of employment for a dermatologist are public hospitals, private practices, train general medical practitioners in a college, and run clinical trials in a research lab. The job outlook for all physicians from 2014 to 2024 is going to increase by 14%. The salary that a dermatologist makes is $286,448 to $389,139 yearly as of September 1, 2018. The benefits of being a dermatologist is having medical, dental, and vision insurance. Also, having nine scheduled paid holidays. Lastly, is after six months you may get $5,250 in the calendar year for college credits. Personal abilities that will make someone succeed in the dermatology field are to know how to communicate well with anyone more specifically with patients and coworkers/staff. Being emotionally stable yourself so that you are able to counsel patients. Also, having motivation towards your job and helping others with their issues. Some advancement opportunities are you could apply yourself in specialty training or additional training.

The main reason I am interested in becoming a dermatology is become I have always been and still am insecure about my skin. I have struggled with acne probably since I was nine or ten and it affects you after a while. So, if I could help people like me who feel like they have to cover up to feel okay about themselves than I definitely would. Also, the skin which is our largest organ in our body and that is about 15% of an average human’s body weight seems very interesting to study and learn more about. Those are the two main reasons I would like to become a dermatologist when I am older.