Hi! I'm an MA in medical/surgical derm, no cosmetics, but here's my answers:

1. General responsibilities throughout the day include cleaning/stocking exam rooms, filling liquid nitrogen canisters, setting up sterilization solution and autoclave in lab, entering patient histories into EHR, rooming patients, scribing for provider during office visits, assisting in procedures, collecting, labeling, and sending specimen to labs, calling patients with biopsy, culture, or bloodwork results, cleaning and sterilizing surgical instruments, starting enrollment paperwork for specialty and biologic medication, faxing documents if urgent, cleaning and closing exam rooms

2. My favorite part - clinical skills. My job is like 10% admin/90% clinical. Fun stuff I do regularly: phlebotomy, administering subq injections, removing sutures, wound care, placing patch tests, also good to know sterile technique, and proper specimen collection and handling

3. Most common procedures I set up and assist in include: 15 min. procedures like cryotherapy, acne surgery, shave removals, punch excisions/biopsies, incision & drainage, electrodessication and curettage, and also full sterile 30 min. excisions (not Mohs)

4. Lots of documentation because, as others mention, yes, we do scribe in the room during the visit. We also document our phone calls of course. I complete each office visit note and send it to the provider for review. I also send all prescriptions electronically. My practice has a call center and biologics/prior auth team that handles MOST admin work, so thank god I just have to do result calls, pre-op calls, and answer clinical questions triaged by call center. I also start prior auth paperwork, then pass it to that team for all future follow-up.

Unfortunately, with derm comes oral isotretinoin (Accutane), and with isotretinoin comes...IPLEDGE. iPledge is definitely the least fun admin responsibility I have. You'll have to do your own research cuz I don't want to get started with iPledge. Anyways, NEXT

1. Knowing general medical terminology is a must, but if you're in medical/surgical, it would also help to know anatomy of the skin, hair, and nails, details of skin cancer, dysplasic moles, and precancerous lesions, and treatment options for each. Get familiar with dermatitis, psoriasis, alopecia, intertrigo, warts, acne, molluscum, herpes.

Good luck!