David Stern, M.D.

Written by ELIZABETH OLDER
Photography by SCOTT STEWART

David Stern fondly remembers the many lessons he learned from remarkable teachers during his student days at Vanderbilt. And by teachers, Stern doesn't necessarily mean faculty. One of them was a military veteran with lung cancer.

"I was learning how to do an IV," recalls Stern, M.D., Ph.D., who was honing his physician skills at the Nashville Veterans Administration hospital.

"I tried three times and I missed, missed, missed," recalls Stern, a 1989 Vanderbilt University School of Medicine graduate. By the third stick, he was apologizing and promising immediate assistance from someone with more experience. "That patient pulled up his other sleeve and said, 'No, son, you need to learn how to do this,' " Stern relates, a trace of amazement still in his voice today. "Here was a guy who had served already, and he was still serving."

The lesson Stern took away from this encounter with a long-ago patient fits well with his philosophy today – that medical school students and faculty members need to recognize that all the people around them can be teachers. For Stern, patients nearly 20 years ago during his training at VUSM, offered lessons he still carries with him today.

"They taught me things I'll never forget," he says. "You learn from patients." continued..