Iowa Med: A Year in the Life
Bailey Jackson VandeLune (20BS, 26MD) is among the 144 fourth-year medical students gathered for Match Day in the thrumming atrium of the University of Iowa’s Medical Education Research Facility. Alongside family and friends, she’ll soon open a letter that will determine where she’ll spend the next three years training as a physician.
The Winterset, Iowa, native has high hopes that she’ll be staying close to home for her residency program. But that hasn’t helped with the sleepless nights. Sometimes she wakes up in a panic that she’s forgotten to submit her residency rankings. Other times she dreams her envelope is empty.
This isn’t the first time VandeLune has attended Match Day, the annual spring event when soon-to-be graduates from the UI Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine learn their residency destinations after a gauntlet of interviews with teaching hospitals around the nation. Two years ago, her now husband, Christian VandeLune (19BS, 24MD), matched with UI Health Care. That same day, Bailey’s older brother, Kyle Jackson (24MD), also learned he’d be staying in Iowa City for his residency.
PHOTO: LIZ MARTIN/UI HEALTH CARE
University of Iowa President Barbara J. Wilson congratulates Bailey VandeLune on her graduation this past spring from the Carver College of Medicine.
Now it’s Bailey’s turn. Iowa is her first choice, but there’s a chance that VandeLune could match elsewhere and be forced to move away from her husband of less than a year. While residency programs consider the location of students’ support systems, including spouses, the National Resident Matching Program is ultimately an algorithm—and for students, a leap of faith.
From the podium, Denise Jamieson, vice president for medical affairs and dean of the Carver College of Medicine, tells the class to savor the moment. “This day really represents all that you have been working towards in your medical education,” she says. “It’s the culmination of a lot of long days and hard work.”
VandeLune feels the comforting weight of her necklace. On one side of the silver pendant is the thumbprint of her father. On the other, in his handwriting, taken from a card he once signed, is “Dad.”
It’s been nearly five years since Jeff Jackson died in a tragic farm accident, and VandeLune has worn this necklace nearly every day of med school. She’s kept her father especially close to her heart in this fourth and final year filled with milestones, when Iowa Magazine followed her on the path to becoming a physician.
PHOTOS COURTESY BAILEY VANDELUNE
Bailey VandeLune keeps her dad’s memory alive through her work in emergency medicine and the thumbprint necklace she wears in his honor.
October 2025
It’s midway through her final fall semester—five months before Match Day—and an important week for VandeLune. She’s preparing for her first of more than 15 residency interviews with teaching hospitals in the Midwest. Ranging from three to six hours each, these videoconferences are her chance to impress programs’ selection committees. After the interviews, she’ll travel to the hospitals that ranked her highly for what’s known as “second looks” to find the right fit.
For more than 150 years, the Carver College of Medicine has prepared physicians to serve Iowa and beyond. About half of the state’s practicing doctors received their education or training at the UI. VandeLune represents the latest generation to continue that legacy. As a member of the Carver College of Medicine Rural Iowa Scholars Program, or CRISP, she’s preparing for a career in rural Iowa. The program provides mentorship, clinical experiences, and loan repayment incentives for students who commit to practicing in these underserved communities after residency.
Prepping for interviews has been a welcome change of pace from the long nights of studying and even longer rotation shifts that defined VandeLune’s first three years of med school. In Year 1, she immersed herself in rigorous core science courses. In Year 2, she began clinical rotations. In Year 3, she took her Step 1 and Step 2 boards—the high-pressure licensing exams required to practice medicine. Now, in Year 4, she’s completing her advanced rotations, working on a capstone project, and exploring residency options.
PHOTO: Seth Diehl
Bailey VandeLune holds a portrait of her late father, Jeff Jackson, who encouraged her to study medicine.
Earlier this month, VandeLune finalized her decision to specialize in emergency medicine, following her older brother into the field. The decision traces back to a day she has replayed countless times.
It was late afternoon, May 15, 2021, when she received the frantic phone call from her mother, Wendi. Bailey’s dad had been in a lawn tractor rollover accident on the farm. VandeLune, who was working as a nursing assistant, rushed back to Madison County Memorial Hospital in Winterset. In a blinding white hospital room, she saw the endotracheal tube and emergency equipment scattered on the counters from the medical team’s attempts to save her father’s life. VandeLune stood in shock as the doctor offered words of comfort to her family. Jeff didn’t survive. He was just 55.
Jeff Jackson couldn’t be there a year later, in fall 2022, when his daughter walked across the stage at Hancher Auditorium during the White Coat Ceremony, a rite of passage in which new students receive their first physician’s jacket. But he was a big part of why Bailey had set her sights on med school. “He didn’t go to college, but he always would tell us you’ve got to go to college to get smart,” she says. “He always believed in us.”
Growing up on the farm, VandeLune rode on the combine with her dad through the corn and bean fields. When she wasn’t helping with chores, she drove four-wheelers and dirt bikes, played baseball in the yard, and cared for the family’s many pets.
Some days, her dad would come back to the house with a bump or scrape. “Dr. Bailey, I have an injury for you to fix,” he would call out. She and her brother would grab the hydrogen peroxide, cotton swabs, and tweezers and spring into action. Bailey, wearing a headlamp, carefully bandaged his bruises and removed his splinters.
In high school, VandeLune’s AP biology and anatomy teacher stoked her interest in science and opened her eyes to a career in medicine. She was fascinated when her class visited a cadaver lab at Des Moines University Medicine and Health Sciences. VandeLune came to the UI as an undergrad to study human physiology, and after graduation she worked as a nursing assistant with UI Health Care for two years.
During the height of the pandemic, VandeLune’s hospital unit became the designated COVID-19 ward. Wearing gowns, gloves, masks, and face shields, she cared for patients who were often critically ill. Helping COVID patients navigate the uncertainty and fear while isolated from their families underscored the importance of human connection and compassionate care.
That experience gave VandeLune the confidence to pursue emergency medicine, a specialty that requires quick decisions and compassion under pressure. “One of the things that drew me into emergency medicine is that, on one shift, you could have something as severe as a car accident, to someone else that has a headache, to a little kid that got stung by a bee,” she says. “You get to see every age range and a multitude of health problems. I really enjoy the fact that every shift is different.”
PHOTO: Seth Diehl
“I feel like people are very polarized by whether it's good or not to have a spouse in medicine. We've found that it's actually really helpful, because we know what each other has gone through as far as medical school.” —BAILEY VANDELUNE ON HER RELATIONSHIP WITH HER HUSBAND, CHRISTIAN
February 2026
VandeLune’s Match Day is less than a month away, and she and husband, Christian, have a rare night at home together. Many days, Christian, a second-year resident in otolaryngology, is up before dawn and doesn’t get home until late. Meanwhile, Bailey’s clinical rotations have taken her away from home for weeks at a time, including clerkships at Regions Hospital in the Twin Cities, MercyOne North Iowa Medical Center in Mason City, and back home at Madison County Memorial Hospital.
This has been life for the VandeLunes in the months since they were married in June 2025. The couple met as undergrads at Iowa in the romantically titled course Viruses and Human Disease and have built a life in Iowa City around their shared ambitions. One day, they hope to have schedules that align, maybe even practicing at the same hospital. But for now, these quiet moments spent together in their townhouse in Coralville keep them going. On the agenda tonight is ordering wings from Jethro’s BBQ—a Thursday ritual.
“I feel like people are very polarized by whether it’s good or not to have a spouse in medicine,” Bailey says. “We’ve found that it’s actually really helpful, because we know what each other has gone through as far as medical school and some of the longer rotations and studying for really hard board exams. With him being two years ahead of me, I also feel like it’s given me a realistic expectation of what residency is going to look like.”
Her interviews now complete, VandeLune has begun finalizing her rank list for submission to the National Resident Matching Program. In this system, applicants rank their preferred residency destinations while programs simultaneously rank candidates. The NRMP algorithm then matches applicants to available positions based on these rankings. No. 1 for VandeLune remains UI Health Care’s emergency medicine residency program, which accepts 10 residents each year into its three-year training track. Second is Regions in St. Paul, where a couple of physicians who were Iowa alums made her feel at home during her visiting rotation.
PHOTO: Seth Diehl
As a new UI Health Care emergency medicine resident, Bailey VandeLune prepares for a career serving patients in rural communities.
“I think the hardest part is trying to plan ahead and not being able to know what my life is going to look like in a few short months when I start residency,” VandeLune says.
Life these days isn’t all interviews and rounds. The VandeLunes make time for Hawkeye games and long walks. Bailey goes for runs and attends fitness classes with her sister-in-law to decompress. She’s also made plenty of good friends among her tight-knit class, including the members of her four-person CRISP cohort and her anatomy lab group that dubbed itself Table 22. Soon, they will be parting ways for residencies around the country. “It will be kind of a bittersweet moment,” VandeLune says. “You’re really excited for your friends and also really sad that life’s going to change.”
Before graduation, however, VandeLune must complete her CRISP capstone project—a scholarly paper and presentation in which students apply what they’ve learned to real-world health care problems. For her project, VandeLune surveyed more than three dozen Iowa emergency health care workers about the disparities they see in rural communities. The big takeaway: Small-town hospitals are struggling with resources and staffing. “There’s just difficulty finding staff that want to come to rural communities and then want to stay in rural communities,” VandeLune says.
CRISP, which began in 2012 and recently expanded from four to eight students per class, is among the ways the Carver College of Medicine is working to address Iowa’s rural physician shortage. Through the program, VandeLune took a monthlong agricultural medicine course focused on issues specific to rural communities, including injuries from handling livestock, pesticides, and machinery. She also took part in the Medical Education Community Orientation Program ahead of her second year that took her back to Winterset for 10 weeks of clinical training.
Spending that summer in her hometown emergency department was deeply personal. It brought back memories of being treated there after tearing her ACL during a high school soccer game—and of saying goodbye to her father in the same ER.
Those defining moments now provide VandeLune with a sense of purpose. “I feel like I recognize a lot of the terror and sadness and all the emotion that can happen in the emergency department,” she says. “My experiences definitely have made me more sensitive to that and ultimately will make me better at handling those situations.”
PHOTO: Seth Diehl
Bailey VandeLune embraces her husband, Christian, after learning she will do her residency in Iowa during Match Day.
March 2026
Morning sunlight streams into the atrium as VandeLune waits for a moment years in the making. The envelopes are drawn from a spinning Bingo hopper, names ring out, and bursts of celebration follow each match reveal.
UCLA. University of Texas Southwestern. Mayo Clinic. Northwestern. New York Presbyterian.
By the end of Match Day, 144 pins representing residency destinations will dot the map at the front of the room. A class that began in Iowa City will scatter across the country, creating the latest Hawkeye residency network that spans 32 states and 29 specialties. Forty graduates will be staying in Iowa, including through residencies in Des Moines, Davenport, and Iowa City.
VandeLune has good reason to feel hopeful about her top choice. She earned strong evaluations during her emergency medicine rotations at UI Health Care—essentially her residency auditions—and impressed the program during her interview. Still, when her name is called, her heart climbs into her throat.
Around the room are the people who helped her reach this moment: mentors, classmates, her husband, and family members who stood beside her through every exam, rotation, setback, and success.
“Just the sheer amount of mentors and people for one person to be successful in medicine is huge,” she says. “So it makes me really grateful to have all of that. I’ve been successful mostly because I had all these people that were cheering me on and helping me when times were tough.”
When the nerves become overwhelming, VandeLune sometimes scrolls through screenshots of old text messages from her father. During stressful weeks as an undergraduate, he would remind her she had nothing to worry about as long as she tried her best.
Once again, he was right.
VandeLune tears open the envelope and embraces Christian.
Congratulations, you have matched!
Institution: UI Health Care Medical Center
Program: Emergency Medicine
PHOTO: SETH DIEHL
On Match Day, Bailey VandeLune celebrates her residency placement in Iowa with her brother, Kyle Jackson; husband, Christian VandeLune; and mother, Wendi Jackson. Kyle and Christian are also resident physicians at UI Health Care.
May 2026
VandeLune breathes in the sea air and looks out over the Caribbean. She and Christian have been planning this trip to Jamaica for months—a celebration of her graduation earlier in May and the beginning of residency.
After presenting her capstone projects and walking across the stage at Hancher Auditorium to receive her degree, medical school is behind her. Next comes residency, where the lessons of the classroom give way to the realities of patient care.
She’s ready for this next step in her education. Working under UI Health Care faculty physicians, she’ll face long shifts, nights, weekends, and the weight of complex decisions that can mean life or death. She’ll begin in June alongside her brother, now a third-year emergency medicine resident, while Christian continues his otolaryngology training.
She knows her dad would be proud. Even here among the crashing Caribbean waves—just like back home in the quiet farm fields, or amid the clamor of the ER in Iowa City—Bailey VandeLune, MD, can still hear his voice.
Dr. Bailey, I have an injury for you to fix.