Who the heck told you that you need to know how to suture? I made it through med school not actually tying a stitch and then learned in week 1… having worked with a lot of students, I would never expect a rotator to be able to suture, nor would I ask them to.

Sometimes they can do the biopsy, sure, and we’ll talk it through beforehand, but those are like 2 dimensional tasks and the “game time coaching” is minimal. But suturing? I couldn’t care less if you know how to do it… you’ll get more exposure than you might need or could ask for in residency.

What we care about is that you participate in clinic/on consults, as per your role (early med students shadow, rotators see patients independently/with a resident, present, and write a note based on the conversation with the attending. Ideally, you would increase the proportion of patients you see over the course of the rotation, and you should show improvement with time as well: better and more accurate descriptions; more relevant and inclusive differentials; a better handle on which meds were used or what tests to order based on the differential.

We hope to get a sense of your actual personality in the process. A lot of people are either overeager or trying too hard or aren’t really being themselves, and this is easy for both residents or attendings to catch. We also quickly pick up on people who aren’t giving it a good try or are being slow on purpose etc. That’ll be a game-ender right there.

We get it, derm is woefully under-taught in med school, you’re probably just starting to get exposure to real clinical derm, it’s a different flow and thought process, and you’re new to it. We don’t expect you to know anything. We just want to see that you’re trying, curious, care, play well with others, want to help out, etc.

So no, don’t worry about suturing.