The truth about life as a...

Job title: dermatologist (consultant and specialist registrar)

What do you do in an average day?

Outpatient clinic, followed by ward visits, followed by further outpatient clinic or surgical list (yes, we operate too, for those of you not sure whether to do medicine or surgery; in dermatology we get the best of both worlds).

Three things you like about your job?

• Dermatology is hugely varied, you will find it difficult to get bored.
• Although we see a certain amount of chronic disease, many conditions are curable and most are at least treatable; this results in a high level of job satisfaction.
• Dermatology is a relatively small specialty, but we are a friendly community and meet regularly at educational events. There are plenty of opportunities for research and teaching.

Three things you don't like about your job?

• Dermatology has a relatively low profile in the hospital environment. It rarely grabs the headlines and is often under-resourced.
• Long waiting times and overbooked clinics can make it difficult to provide as good a service to our patients as we would wish.
• High incidence of "corridor" and "dinner party" consultations.

Why do it?

• Dermatology is fascinating.
• The ability to concentrate on one specialty rather than opting for one of the specialties which requires a commitment to general internal medicine.
• Quality of life. Although very busy through the day dermatologists are rarely sleep deprived*don't let anyone tell you that this is not an important consideration.

Prospects

At present there is a bottle neck at specialist registrar level, but some additional national training numbers have been awarded to dermatology recently. There are more available consultant posts than there are accredited trainees to fill them at the moment.

Sales pitch

Dermatology is a hugely varied specialty which remains interesting after a lifetime's career and is compatible with a good quality of life. We would thoroughly recommend it.