The JWCH Dermatology Volunteer Clinic puts you in the room with patients who need care and gives you the clinical skills to actually help. Students gather histories and present to attendings. Physicians make all clinical decisions. You focus on learning.
Open to Keck School of Medicine and UC Riverside School of Medicine students. Keck students are given priority. Participation depends on clinic approval, onboarding completion, and current capacity. 🚗 Carpool coordination available.
New volunteers shadow for the first couple of sessions to get comfortable with clinic flow. When you feel ready, you start seeing patients on your own. No arbitrary timeline, no waiting until M3.
Roles adapt to student experience, supervision, and clinic volume. More experienced students may progress faster depending on flow and attending availability.
You do not have to want to be a dermatologist to get enormous value from this clinic. Skin findings are a window into systemic disease, and the history-taking, presentation, and clinical reasoning skills you build here apply directly to whatever specialty you choose.
Skin manifestations of autoimmune disease, diabetes, and infection are everyday findings. Knowing what you are looking at matters in every outpatient visit. Background reading ↗
Rashes are one of the most common pediatric chief complaints. Atopic dermatitis, viral exanthems, tinea. Derm fluency is core pediatric competency. Background reading ↗
Stevens-Johnson, meningococcemia, necrotizing fasciitis. EM physicians catch the derm findings no one else did. This clinic builds that eye. Background reading ↗
Lupus rashes, dermatomyositis, paraneoplastic syndromes. Derm and these fields are deeply intertwined. Recognizing the findings early changes outcomes. Background reading ↗
Even if this clinic is not a surgical setting, dermatology gives helpful exposure to the skin as a surgical organ. You'll become more comfortable describing lesions, recognizing wounds, understanding basic skin healing, and noticing when a finding may need biopsy, excision, or procedural follow-up. These habits are useful in surgical fields where skin exams, incisions, closures, infections, and wound care are part of patient care. Background reading ↗ More on wound care ↗
In resource-limited settings, dermatology is often the most accessible specialty. What you learn here is globally applicable. Background reading ↗
M1s and M2s: The patient presentation skills you build here are exactly what attendings expect on your first rotation. Walk into third year having already presented real patients to real physicians. That head start is real, and it shows.
Learn the language of dermatology: macule, papule, plaque, vesicle, pustule. Describe what you see with precision. A foundational skill every physician uses, in every specialty.
Master the derm-specific HPI: onset, distribution, evolution, triggers, prior treatments. Structured and efficient, directly applicable to shelf exams and clinical rotations.
Shadow your first few sessions to get comfortable with clinic flow. When you feel ready, you take patients on your own, gather the history, and bring it to the attending. Your pace, your call.
Practice your oral presentation skills in a real clinical setting. Concise, organized, supervised. The exact format you will need on every rotation, starting now.
Watch attendings and residents build differentials in real time. Connect your preclinical knowledge to what is actually in front of you and learn how physicians think through uncertainty.
Understand how structural barriers shape dermatologic presentations and care. This context changes how you practice medicine, regardless of specialty, for the rest of your career.
Our patients are real people navigating real hardship. Many have gone months or years without access to specialty care. Students take histories and offer presence. Attending physicians make all clinical decisions. Together, we make sure patients feel heard and leave with a plan.
A patient living in a shelter comes in worried about hair loss and a scalp that has been itching and flaking for months. Without reliable shower access, managing it on their own has not been possible. You sit with them, take the history, and learn what their day-to-day looks like. The attending assesses and diagnoses. You observe the treatment plan being built around what is actually accessible for this patient's life. Before leaving, the patient says this is the first time someone has really listened to what they have been going through.
A patient has been walking miles every day in ill-fitting donated shoes. Both feet are raw and blistered, some wounds already open. You gather the history: how long, how painful, what they have tried. The attending examines and makes the clinical call on wound care. Your role is to be present, thorough, and human. For someone who has spent weeks on their feet with nowhere to rest, being carefully heard matters as much as any prescription.
A patient comes in about a raised lesion on their face that has been there for a while and has started to bother them, not just physically but in how they think other people see them when they talk. You take the history: how long it has been there, whether it has changed, what they have noticed. The attending examines it and walks through the reasoning out loud, asymmetry, borders, color, growth, before deciding a biopsy is the right next step. A resident performs the biopsy while you observe the technique up close. For a patient who has been quietly self-conscious about their face for months, finally having it looked at, and the plan for an answer, means more than the visit itself.
A patient with longstanding eczema on her hands has an important occasion coming up and is self-conscious about how she looks. She has not been able to afford her prescription and has been managing with whatever she can find over the counter, which has not been enough. You take the history and hear how much this has been weighing on her. The attending examines her hands, and the clinic is able to send her home with medication at no cost. At her follow-up, she comes back with healed hands, soft, calm skin, no more cracking, and she is glowing about it. Small moments like this are why continuity in this clinic matters.
Working alongside attendings and residents in a small, collaborative setting builds genuine relationships. Clinic nights give you face time with people who know your name and what you care about. That is a rare thing in medical school.
Work alongside USC derm faculty in a small-group setting you will not find in a lecture hall.
Residents remember what it was like to be an M1. Ask anything. They are here for it.
Connections to USC derm faculty are valuable whether you are pursuing the specialty or not. Start building them in M1, not M4.
Clinic nights mean shared work, shared purpose, and colleagues you will know for your whole career.
Not at all. New volunteers shadow for the first couple of sessions to get oriented, then take patients independently when they feel ready. Students gather histories and present to attendings. Physicians make all clinical decisions. The learning happens here.
This experience is valuable regardless of your specialty interest. Lesion description, history-taking, and patient presentation are universal clinical skills. Derm findings appear in virtually every field of medicine, and the practice you get presenting to attendings here will serve you on every rotation.
No. We coordinate carpool options for volunteers who need rides. Reach out after completing your interest form and we will connect you with other volunteers traveling from your area.
The program is open to students at Keck School of Medicine (USC) and UC Riverside School of Medicine. Keck students are given priority. Participation depends on clinic approval, onboarding completion, and available capacity.
Typically once per month on a weekday evening, usually 5:00–8:30 PM.
Free parking in a gated area is typically available. Full details shared after selection. Carpool coordination also available.
Yes, dinner is provided, usually pizza, while clinic runs.
The interest form is the first step, not a guarantee. Clinic capacity is limited and selection depends on approval status, availability, and current needs. Waitlisted students are contacted for future clinic dates.
Submit the interest form and take the first step toward real clinical skills, real patient relationships, and a genuine connection with the USC derm community.
Questions? jwchdermatologyclinic@gmail.com