Not Just Luck

EDITORIAL Not Just Luck

few months ago, I described a 52-year-old and encourage potential authors and reviewers. At a female patient’s puzzling rash to a colleague: memorable meeting last winter, during a howling snow- a striking symmetrical, bright-red, sharply- storm one dark Thursday night, I met Susan Busch and defined macular erythema of the genital/ Jane Tallent, the 2009Y2010 Lahey Clinic Dermatology inguinal and medial-gluteal areas, and much Nurse Practitioner Fellowship fellows, quintessential ex- less prominently, the axillae and inframmary folds. Sitting amples of individuals who heartily seek out learning op- Aon her desk was an article, just read, describing this un- portunities. We talked animatedly about ways they might usual drug eruption. Coined the Bbaboon syndrome[ be- contribute to the Journal, and I forgot how sweet it would cause of the resemblance to the red buttocks of baboons, it have been to stay home and light a fire in the fireplace. has been renamed the less colorful, less memorable, but less- When an uncanny opportunity presents itself to apply some- unnerving-to-be-diagnosed- thing we have just learned, we can remind ourselves that we with Bsymmetrical drug-related helped create this fortunate situation; we helped create our intertriginous and flexural exan- own luck. A dermatology nurse approached me at the 2009 thema[ (SDRIFE; Hausermann, Dermatology Nurses’ Association summer meeting in Boston, Harr, & Bircher, 2004). reporting that only a day or two after she was introduced to I said it was good luck that Merkel cell carcinoma by the JDNA article by Victoria she had just read this article, and Garcia-Albea (nee Beebe; Beebe, 2009), she heard colleagues a colleague commented, para- discussing a new patient diagnosed with Merkel cell cancer in phrasing Louis Pasteur, BChance their practice. Had she not taken the opportunity to read favors the prepared mind[ Victoria’s article, her ears would not have perked up when (L. Pasteur, lecture at the Univer- she heard this unusual diagnosis. As it was, not only did she sity of Lille, December 1854). If speak up and learn about the patient, but she approached me she had not chosen to spend her about writing about the case for the JDNA. She is someone free time reading dermatology, she would not have been who spots and exploitsVand createsVopportunities. freshly-armed with that diagnosis, so useful to my patient that The JDNA has been helpful to me in my practice as a particular day. BLuck is where preparation meets opportu- dermatology nurse practitioner. I felt better equipped to nity,[ attributed to Seneca, is cited by Snieder and Larner answer the questions of a solid organ transplant patient, (2009) in The Art of Being a Scientist: A Guide for Graduate after reading Victoria Lazareth’s (2010a, 2010b) series, Students and their Mentors.Theyremindusthatbymaking BDermatologic Care of the Transplant Patient,[ part two of the decision to take advantage of (often fleeting) opportuni- which appears in this issue. I have started to incorporate ties, you can Bcreate your own luck[ (p. 253), and influence both the Smack-a-Mole game and BSunAWARE[ in patient the quality and direction of your work. teaching, and have found BSunAWARE[ a handy way to The New England Dermatology Nurse Practitioner So- efficiently document counseling in clinic notes (see both ciety has its meetings on the evening of the fourth Thursday articles in this issue) (Fairbrother & Fairbrother, 2010; of each month, featuring a guest lecturer, from whom I in- Barrow, 2010). A number of times I have, with patients as variably learn something that contributes to my practice of well as colleagues, referred to the recent article by Miriam dermatology. I admit that sometimesitiseasiertoheadhome, Kravitz, graduate student in the Doctorate of Nursing skipping the rush-hour traffic and the meeting, assuring Practice Dermatology Residency at the University of South myself that I have worked hard enough that week. How- Florida, BIndoor Tanning, Skin Cancer, and Tanorexia: ever, it is the decision to take advantage of these opportu- Development of US Indoor Tanning Policy[ (Kravitz, 2010). nities that allows us to learn more dermatology, as well as It has been extremely helpful to be able to pull out the about professional opportunities, and in my case, to meet Skin Cancer Foundation’s thoughtful, evidence-based

VOLUME 2 | NUMBER 5 | SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2010 195

Copyright @ 2010 Dermatology Nurses' Association. Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited. EDITORIAL rebuttal (see BIn The News,[ in this issue) to recent REFERENCES challenges concerning the safety and effectiveness of sun- Barrow, M. M. (2010). Approaching skin cancer education with a clear message: BBe safe. Be SunAWARE.[ Journal of the Dermatology screen, the dozens of times my patients–often as an aside, Nurses’ Association, 2(5), 209Y213. during a skin check–have alluded to these charges (Skin Beebe, V. (2009). A review of Merkel cell carcinoma for dermatology Cancer Foundation, 2010; http://www.skincancer.org/ nurses. Journal of the Dermatology Nurses’ Association, 1(3), 173Y179. recentattackssunscreen.html). Belkin, S. (2010). Cicatricial Alopecia Research Foundation. Journal of the My patients will also benefit from Ted Scott’s patient Dermatology Nurses’ Association, 2(3), 118Y122. handout on intertrigo in this issue (Scott, 2010), which of- Fairbrother, K., & Fairbrother, E. (2010). Smack-a-Mole game teaches skin cancer awareness and raises funds for the Dermatology Nurses’ fers instructions more specific than I had used in the past. I Association. Journal of the Dermatology Nurses’ Association, 2(5), have already several times shared the detailed handout, 218Y221. BCosmetic Options for Covering Hair Loss,[ prepared by Hausermann, P., Harr, T., & Bircher, A. J. (2004). Baboon syndrome resulting from systemic drugs: is there strife between SDRIFE and the Cicatricial Alopecia Research Foundation (www. allergic contact dermatitis syndrome? Contact Dermatitis, 51,297Y310. carfintl.org), and published as part of Sheila Belkin’s Kravitz, M. (2010). Indoor tanning, skin cancer, and tanorexia: Develop- Y ment of US indoor tanning policy. Journal of the Dermatology Nurses’ article in the May June issue of JDNA (Belkin, 2010). Association, 2(3), 110Y115. Every time we take advantage of an opportunity, we are Lazareth, V. L. (2010a). Dermatologic care of the transplant patient: Part I. preparing ourselves. We all know that sometimes the in- Journal of the Dermatology Nurses’ Association, 2(2), 59Y63. Lazareth, V. L. (2010b). Dermatologic care of the transplant patient: Part vestment of time will be disappointing. But any number of 2. Journal of the Dermatology Nurses’ Association, 2(5), 198Y206. disappointments will be greatly offset by that one lecture, Scott, T. D. (2010). Intertrigo. Journal of the Dermatology Nurses’ Association, that one article that gives us a new insight, introduces us to a 2(5), 226. Skin Cancer Foundation. (2010). If recent attacks on sunscreen concern person or concept or diagnosis that might make a difference I Y Y you Journal of the Dermatology Nurses’ Association, 2(5), 228 229. to us and to a patient, on a particular day, sometime in Snieder, R., & Larner, K. (2009). The art of being a scientist: A guide for the future. h graduate students and their mentors (pp. 253Y255). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. Barbara B. Starr Editor-in-Chief DOI: 10.1097/JDN.0b013e3181fa27ac

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: PATIENT HANDOUTS

e encourage you to submit handouts that you have found especially useful in Wyour dermatology or dermatologic procedure/surgery practice to the Journal of the Dermatology Nurses’ Association (JDNA), for consideration for inclusion in this new department. Editorial Board members and the Editor are available to assist new and experienced authors during the submission process, and to discuss potential patient handout and article ideas. See Information for Authors in this issue or at our electronic submission site www.editorialmanager.com/jdna, or contact the Editor directly at [email protected].

Consider this an opportunity. . . .

196 Journal of the Dermatology Nurses’ Association