{"id":70878,"date":"2026-06-18T13:52:32","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T17:52:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/?p=70878"},"modified":"2026-06-18T13:54:22","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T17:54:22","slug":"featured-ume-anna-symmes-md","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/news\/featured-ume-anna-symmes-md\/","title":{"rendered":"UME Faculty Spotlight: Anna Symmes, MD"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\"><em>Meet Dr. Anna Symmes an assistant professor of medicine in the Division of Hospital Medicine.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-70879\" src=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/945\/2026\/06\/Symmes-Headshot.jpg-231x300.avif\" alt=\"\" width=\"206\" height=\"268\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/945\/2026\/06\/Symmes-Headshot.jpg-231x300.avif 231w, https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/945\/2026\/06\/Symmes-Headshot.jpg-789x1024.avif 789w, https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/945\/2026\/06\/Symmes-Headshot.jpg-768x997.avif 768w, https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/945\/2026\/06\/Symmes-Headshot.jpg-1183x1536.avif 1183w, https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/945\/2026\/06\/Symmes-Headshot.jpg-600x779.avif 600w, https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/945\/2026\/06\/Symmes-Headshot.jpg-301x391.avif 301w, https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/945\/2026\/06\/Symmes-Headshot.jpg.avif 1500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 206px) 100vw, 206px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">My interest in medical education started in residency where I had some amazing attendings who acted as both teachers and mentors and have since become friends. Two things that they did that really stuck with me: they gave excellent feedback, and they taught in the moment. These two things really helped me to grow as a physician, as a learner, and as a teacher and has fueled my own passion for feedback and teaching on the fly. I have had the privilege of giving talks on these subjects to residents, small groups, and faculty at UNC, the Wilmington campus, and elsewhere.<\/p>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">A few years ago, I got a chance to be the clerkship director at East Carolina University and discovered that 4th year medical students are some of my favorite learners to work with. Some of my most meaningful moments as an educator have come while walking students through decisions about specialty, where to apply to residency, who to ask for letters of recommendation and what to do about their rank list. I love watching students succeed in their specialty of choice (not always IM, but I\u2019m thrilled when they chose our awesome specialty!) and have stayed in touch with many of my former students.<\/p>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">I have kept that interest in educating 4th year students here at UNC, helping to start the direct care hospitalist teaching service AI out at Hillsborough this year, I am also a CGA for several students. Outside of medicine, I enjoy cheering on NC State Football where my husband is a coach and watching our toddler daughter explore the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Meet Dr. Anna Symmes an assistant professor of medicine in the Division of Hospital Medicine.\u00a0 My interest in medical education started in residency where I had some amazing attendings who acted as both teachers and mentors and have since become friends. Two things that they did that really stuck with me: they gave excellent feedback, &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/news\/featured-ume-anna-symmes-md\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about UME Faculty Spotlight: Anna Symmes, MD\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":112673,"featured_media":70879,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"layout":"","cellInformation":"","apiCallInformation":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[678,93,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-70878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-ume","category-hospital-medicine","category-news","odd"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>UME Faculty Spotlight: Anna Symmes, MD | Department of Medicine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/medicine\/news\/featured-ume-anna-symmes-md\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"UME Faculty Spotlight: Anna Symmes, MD | Department of Medicine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Meet Dr. Anna Symmes an assistant professor of medicine in the Division of Hospital Medicine.\u00a0 My interest in medical education started in residency where I had some amazing attendings who acted as both teachers and mentors and have since become friends. 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