The effect of derivative nonlinearity and parity-time-symmetric (PT-symmetric) potentials on the wave propagation dynamics is explored in the derivative nonlinear Schrödinger equation, where the physically interesting Scarf-II and harmonic-Hermite-Gaussian potentials are chosen. We study numerically the regions of unbroken and broken linear PT-symmetric phases and find some stable bright solitons of this model in a wide range of potential parameters even though the corresponding linear PT-symmetric phases are broken. The semielastic interactions between particular bright solitons and exotic incident waves are illustrated such that we find that particular nonlinear modes almost keep their shapes after interactions even if the exotic incident waves have evidently been changed. Moreover, we exert the adiabatic switching on PT-symmetric potential parameters such that a stable nonlinear mode with the unbroken linear PT-symmetric phase can be excited to another stable nonlinear mode belonging to the broken linear PT-symmetric phase.