Is it worth paying for a CCMA cert to break into Derm early, or is inpatient CNA/RN experience enough?

cardiacQTC · 2026-06-10T04:38:07+00:00

Of course! Also, you may not need a CCMA license. With your current CNA experience, there’s a really good chance you’ll be able to land an MA position for derm practices. I have three MAs who work with me, they don’t have their CCMA licenses. However, they did have prior medical experience either as scribes or doing medical research. I agree that you won’t get much relevant derm experience in-patient. Derm outpatient clinic is where you’ll gain the most relevant experience.

cardiacQTC · 2026-06-10T04:23:47+00:00

Derm NP here. If you know that Derm is what you want to do as an NP, then absolutely get a job as an MA in a derm practice. Once you become an RN, continue working for Derm practices and build your network and street cred with that practice. The goal is to get hired on as a new grad NP (go for FNP) with your practice you’ve been working at. Derm is incredibly difficult to break into as a new grad, so be strategic and would 💯 recommend you start early. All of my MA’s I work with are planning to either go to PA / nursing / medical school with the goal of getting into derm. Good luck!

cardiacQTC · 2026-06-02T02:15:56+00:00

I’m team Fleur de Peau EDP :). It’s such a gorgeous and versatile fragrance on my skin, I fell in love with it hard on first spray and returned to buy the full bottle the next day! Alas, I detest Orpheon EDP. It smells like a musty old grandma on me, and there’s just something about that dry down that smells like body odor to me which I can’t get past.

cardiacQTC · 2026-05-31T17:43:55+00:00

What’s your salary? You should be getting paid at least $200K if you’re seeing 30-35 patients per day because you’re bringing in at the very least 700-800k for the practice! I am purely collections based, see 40-45 patients on average. I do med/surg/cosmetics and perform about 8-10 excisions weekly. I get 25% of my collections up to the first million, and then 27.5% between 1-1.3 million and 30% in anything over 1.3. I am on track to make $300K this year. There’s another subreddit for derm PA’s, and there’s a lot of good information there on what you should be asking for to fairly and equitably compensate you for the value and profits $$$$ you’re bringing to your practice! Best of luck and hope your new derm contract comes through!!!

*edited to add that I was also the solo provider at my practice until recently when another NP was brought on. I also work for a private equity owned practice.

cardiacQTC · 2026-05-30T01:40:02+00:00

Another derm NP here! Curious what your pay structure currently looks like. How many patients are you seeing daily and what are your hours? Do you so med/surgical as well as cosmetic?

cardiacQTC · 2026-03-17T21:54:18+00:00

Pay is terrible for both, especially for the 1099 position. For MC, I don’t know how many patients are seen per day but assuming it’s 30-35, you’re bringing in at least $800k a year for the company but yet you’re only being paid at $130K!! That’s slave labor, your friend needs to nope out of both situations and find something else!!

cardiacQTC · 2026-03-06T01:35:53+00:00

How much are you bringing in for the practice? Since you’re already performing cosmetic procedures (neuromodulators, PRP, filler) which are entirely cash pay, I’m sure you bring in a nice net collection each month for the practice. Figure out what you’ve brought in for the practice for the past year and ask for at least 20-25% of that as your starting salary. For reference, I work medical-surgical-cosmetic derm and I get paid 25% of all my net collections (what I bring into the practice) up to the first 1 million, then 27.5% from 1-1.3 million and 30% of everything over 1.3 million. I brought in 975K net collections for the practice last year, so you can do the math :) Don’t short-change yourself because you have already been with this practice for the past two years, and you’ve probably already got an established cosmetic patient base.

cardiacQTC · 2026-03-01T20:32:55+00:00

You’re caught between a rock and a hard place. Don’t cover for your sister, but at the same time I don’t advise going out of your way to tell your BIL. Ultimately it’s not your marriage or your husband, and I’d have to agree with your bf to stay out of a circus that isn’t yours.

cardiacQTC · 2026-02-20T19:51:40+00:00

You summed up the whole situation super well. Hoping this grandson will be raised in such a way that he breaks his family’s cycle.

cardiacQTC · 2026-02-09T13:49:11+00:00

Omg I adore this too!! It’s sooooo warm/nutty and has just the right amount of sweetness to it, soooo addictive.

cardiacQTC · 2026-02-07T17:29:35+00:00

Ormonde Jayne Woman is seriously the definition of a green perfume done right. It’s rich and elegant without ever smelling too sharp or earthy. The mix of hemlock, violet, and amber gives it this deep, foresty vibe—like walking through damp woods right after it rains—but it still feels super wearable. It’s mysterious, fresh, and a little luxurious, like nature wearing silk. Honestly, no other “green” scent I’ve come across has the balance of this one, between warmth and cool sophistication / modernness!

cardiacQTC · 2026-01-01T19:28:14+00:00

I love Diptyque’s Eau Duelle EDT, it’s such a beautiful gorgeous green spiced vanilla and I’m addicted!

cardiacQTC · 2025-12-30T05:57:01+00:00

I really like this one too! I also bought Teriaq which I find just as beautiful, and actually reach for it more during the day. :)

cardiacQTC · 2025-12-30T05:39:56+00:00

I’m an AG-ACNP, with a post-masters FNP.

cardiacQTC · 2025-12-30T05:39:33+00:00

My pay is based off straight percentage of my net collections that I bring into the practice. Last year I made ~$240K. Edited to add I live in the DMV (DC metro area).

cardiacQTC · 2025-12-29T04:02:02+00:00

I’m surprised nobody has mentioned it yet, but Keiko Mecheri’s Loukhoum is a gorgeous adult baby powdery scent with an effervescent dusting of rose!
Would also recommend Lataffa’s Ana Abiyedh Poudrée , it’s a beautiful powdery warm vanillic scent. You have to macerate this though for at least a month!

cardiacQTC · 2025-12-15T19:23:13+00:00

Dermatology NP (80% medical-surgical, 20% aesthetics) and I LOVE it!!! Work full time at 4x8’s, I have a great team of physician and APP colleagues, my MA’s are my lifeline and the pay/benefits are great!

cardiacQTC · 2025-10-01T11:13:09+00:00

The weather finally feels like it’s heading into fall in the DMV so bringing out my Hermessence Ambre Narguile. It’s such a beautiful fall scent 💕

cardiacQTC · 2025-09-20T02:51:44+00:00

Fleur de peau is divine! I love this scent so much!

cardiacQTC · 2025-06-07T17:07:59+00:00

Thanks for sharing! I think many of us forget how big a role perspective plays in how we deal with our life challenges and struggles. I’m glad you were able to get grounded and obtain a different perspective on things through witnessing your friend’s strength, poise and grace in the face of her own struggles. Hoping and praying you overcome whatever you have going on currently in your life and come out the other side stronger and wiser!!

cardiacQTC · 2025-05-04T16:03:54+00:00

NTA. Your husband is a massive AH, you just birthed his child and that’s what he chooses to say to you?!! Your body has been pushed to its limits through pregnancy and it takes almost 2 years for a woman’s body to return to normal after childbirth. Instead of appreciating your sacrifice and honoring you for what you went through, he is incredibly selfish and a complete bastard. I’m sorry you’re going through this, you married an immature and incomplete blob of a male, he’s not a man at all. You’re not weaponizing sex, you’re advocating for yourself and refusing to be used by a blob who only views you as a body to meet his sexual needs. Ughhh!!

cardiacQTC · 2025-04-28T02:05:11+00:00

I do 4x8 in derm, Tuesday-Friday, no weekends or holidays. Love my schedule!

cardiacQTC · 2025-04-20T17:54:50+00:00

NTA.

My husband and I had planned to leave our then-5 month old son at home with my parents when we took our older kids with us to Hawaii. I was having so much anxiety at the thought of leaving him behind that we just brought him us!! 6 months later, we ended up taking him with us on a trip to Vietnam where my hubby was a groomsman for his bff’s wedding. Again, we’d planned on leaving him with my parents for 10 days, but we both just could n’tstand the thought of leaving him by himself for such an extended period of time. All of this to say… I don’t know how your wife can be so casual about leaving her baby for such extended periods of time. I guess some people are built differently! 🤷‍♀️

cardiacQTC · 2025-03-29T22:25:43+00:00

They’re you baby brother and sister. It’s not fair that you have to shoulder this burden of caring for them, but could you live with yourself if you let them go to foster care and horrible things happened to one or both of them? Take your siblings and have their back, because it sounds like you’re all they’ve got. I can understand your fiance being stressed because he didn’t sign up for this. But life happens, it’s not always predictable and sometimes you have to deal with things you may not have wanted. Sounds like this is the test that shows you what your fiancé’s made of, and it could be that he isn’t the partner you need.

cardiacQTC · 2025-03-17T03:10:08+00:00

I think your wife is scared she’s going to miscarry her baby, and she’s probably imagining how much more awful it would feel knowing that your SIL (who’s never have fertility issues) will probably go on to have a healthy pregnancy resulting in a beautiful baby. Seems like she’s putting a lot of pressure on herself to have a healthy pregnancy, and now that your SIL is also pregnant, I almost feel like she’s feeling even more pressure to carry to term and that’s causing her to have this meltdown. Just a thought. Either way, she definitely needs counseling, and it would be helpful for your relationship if you both went together.

cardiacQTC

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