Dermatology

Since it's my last day of the placement tomorrow I'm going to do another little mini-review of my time in the Dermatology department here in case anybody is interested but also because it all helps when it comes to writing our report at the end of May!

I've really enjoyed this placement much more than Gastro and that's mainly due to the Chef who takes charge of the Erasmus students here and organises our timetable. For the first week of the placement I spent all my time on the ward with the externes (like in gastro, doing the visite, helping them with odd jobs here and there and helping with the new patients) but then the following three weeks were spent in the 'consults' - outpatient clinics to you and I. This was good as I spent much less of my time sitting around while feeling like a bit of a spare part while everybody did administrative tasks around me, and much more of my time learning interesting medical facts and looking at rashes. The timetable was really flexible - I had way more free time than my last placement yet somehow felt like I learned a lot more and had a more varied experience of the service.

Dermatology in France is quite similar to the UK but there are a few notable differences. Firstly, on the 20-bed ward I'd say at least half of the patients at any given time were in with leg ulcers (dermatologists don't generally deal with ulcers in the UK). More bizarrely, I found out that in France dermatologists also take charge of most cases of syphilis, whether or not the patients have skin symptoms! It's a bit of a hotch potch. In addition, I kept noticing drugs being used in funny ways that I've never heard of before - for example topical Spironolactone?! (non-medics: in England, spironolactone is a drug that you take as a tablet and it makes you pee more. In France, they put the same drug in a cream and it cures acne. I never would have guessed).

The only drawback of this 'stage' was the number of students attatched to the department. It's a big service, but there were 10 externes, 2 Erasmus students and at least 6 third year students who had to come in in the mornings. AND often we had pharmacy students sitting in on the consultations too - apparently it's a requirement of their studies here. Now most of the externes were often busy on the ward or in Hopital du jour, but even with 2 or three clinics running alongside each other things still got a little crowded and there were some I would have liked to go to but didn't get the chance.

But all in all, c'etait super!



Not much else to report for now except that I have been shut away in bed this weekend with a terrible French disease that I am convinced I caught at our first adventure to the public swimming baths last Wednesday. That'll teach us to try and be healthy. I've recovered enough to go ice skating tonight though, hopefully that will prove to be a far less germ-riddled activity. And only two more days until I break this Nantes cabin fever that's setting in and go home for Easter weekend! Can't wait!

Marie
xxx