We hope you have a fun and safe winter break! Please enjoy your time off. Classes start on Monday, January 6.

The School of Medicine will be closed Tuesday, December 24 through Wednesday, January 1. Please be sure to reach out for anything you need (like January course changes) before we close!

Rachael Petry, MD, is the course director of the Geriatric Medicine AI. She finds that teaching medical students is one of the greatest parts of her job. The passion and diligence students have, particularly when working with older adults in their Acting Internship, gives her renewed hope in the future of the healthcare system. Dr. Petry remind her students that for them, being in the hospital will one day be their normal, but it is not the normal for their patients. She tells students, especially for those preparing to enter residency, that being sick is scary for patients: "[I]t is an incredible privilege to care for them when they are at their most vulnerable."

Rachael Waks Petry, MD

Dr. Petry was lucky enough to have all 4 of her grandparents living within 3 miles of her home here in Tennessee. While Dr. Petry was in college, her grandmother passed away and her grandfather was diagnosed with dementia. As she witnessed her parents becoming caregivers, she saw how complex care for older adults can be. "[T]he need for empathetic providers who can acknowledge the person before the disease, communicate directly and effectively about prognosis and diseases trajectory, and practice 'common sense medicine' based on a patient's goals of care" was what drove Dr. Petry to her current role as Medical Director of the Acute Care for the Elderly Unit. She hopes to see you on the Geriatric Medicine AI!

For students expecting to graduate in 2026, you will receive a survey on Monday, January 6 to indicate your top 10 AI course and month preferences. The deadline to complete the survey is Tuesday, January 21. After the deadline, you will be placed in your AI based on a lottery. You will know your placement by Monday, January 27. If you are taking a year out, you will still complete the survey to indicate whether you want to take your AI before or after your year out. If you missed the AI Fair or need a refresher on what is offered, refer to the video and slides from the AI Fair posted here under Elective Counseling Presentations for Class of 2026 and browse the AI course descriptions in YES.

When you run into a technical difficulty in VSTAR, please submit a Help ticket here so our Education Design and Informatics (EDI) team can get your issue resolved quickly. If you do not submit a Help ticket, failure to meet course requirements due to technical issues will not be considered, such as a flag for not logging Vital Experiences.

We are very excited to welcome Lydia Abell as Senior Program Manager for the MD Core Curriculum team. She comes to us from the Dean's Office at the College of Arts and Science, where she worked for almost 5 years, first as Administrative Coordinator and then as Administrative Manager. Outside of work, Lydia loves cooking, reading, and spending time with her husband and their 2-year old daughter.

Lydia can be reached at immersion.phase@vanderbilt.edu.

John E. Fryer, MD, a 1962 VUSM graduate and advocate for the LGBTQIA+ community, played a large role in shaping the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders through a powerful speech that he gave to the American Psychiatric Association in 1973.

WEBSITE

Find most of what you need online in the MD Gateway under Immersion.

Do you have questions about the Immersion Phase? Want counseling on which courses to take?