Was it losing weight? Spending more time with your family? Dragging your body to the gym? Reading more books? When's the last year you set a new year's resolution? And how far did you get before you broke it? And why are you so discouraged about trying again in 2013? We students in the medical field are required to study behavior change ...

  1. A patient presents with a new spot on the nose for 3 months. No history of skin cancer. I believe it's a BCC and path proves it's a SCC, WOW! 2. Ceruloderma, a drug-induced pigmentation secondary to Lupus medication.   3. ''Show and Tell:'' I love a zip lock bag attached to the chart on the door. This patient was proud of the ...

  This blog is brought to you by ADVANCE and DNA. The Dermatology Nurses' Association (DNA) will host a Virtual Psoriasis Symposium on Saturday, Nov. 10.  This event offers a unique educational format for dermatology and primary care nurses as well as nurse practitioners who treat patients with psoriasis. An estimated 7.5 ...

Last week, NP and PA readers submitted questions to our communities asking for advice from fellow clinicians. Below are a sample - if you have any advice for these NPs and PAs, comment on the respective article or share with us here and we'll make sure to pass along the wisdom. Have something you'd like a clearer answer on? Let us know on our ...

Autumn is my favorite time of year. I love the colors of the leaves, cool brisk evenings, baking with pumpkins and Sunday soup making. Fall also just happens to be a favorite season of mine in the office, too. I call it ''catch-up time'' for a number of reasons. First and foremost, this is an excellent opportunity to discuss with patients the ...

Last week, readers commented on two of our recent orthopedic articles. In response to ''After Your Patient's Knee Replacement,'' reader Thomas said, ''Nice article Jennifer - I had my TKR in 2010 and you described my overall experience quite well. Patients do really tend to forget that they lost their joint mobility slowly over a sustained time ...

I spent the better part of my summer interviewing for a new job, exploring other derm offices and traveling to different cities I was considering. I was surprised by the volume of offices looking to hire a dermatology PA or NP. I had a wonderful experience searching and interviewing, and I was lucky to have many options to choose from. I decided ...

Year after year, summer after summer, we start to notice our skin losing elasticity and developing new, larger or darker brown spots on the face, chest, arms or legs. Fortunately, more people are now educated about the risk of excessive sun exposure and are taking sun protection more seriously. When skin looks and feels old - leathery with brown ...

It was a sunny, warm afternoon. A great day to spend outdoors with the family. But Dad had not come home ... again. Then, the phone rang. Maybe it was him? But the voice was not his. ''I'm afraid that he has died,'' the voice whispered across the phone. They found him in a ditch, motionless, dirty ... and gone. ''I am sorry. He died from alcohol ...

I felt extremely silly and subpar after reading my patient's pathology report. But it was a humbling experience and wonderful reminder that we can so easily get led down the wrong track of diagnosis based on how the patient subjectively explains his or her condition. This particular case involved a 16-year-old overweight Hispanic boy brought ...