The Office of Health Sciences Education (OHSE) oversees the wide-ranging educational opportunities and activities at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and Vanderbilt University Medical Center. We intersect with physicians and medical professionals at all stages of their careers, from students to longtime practitioners, promoting their development as life-long learners.
Continuum of Education
Vanderbilt University Professional Degree Programs
OHSE-VU supports a broad and diverse group of 10 VUSM professional degree programs through providing a range of services, including financial and human resources oversight, academic support services (including financial aid, admissions and registration/student records), curriculum support, education technology and informatics, student support services, and education research resources. Our office bridges the university, the School of Medicine, and collaborating VUMC departments, toward sustaining robust professional degree programs that provide highly personalized pathways and develop learners’ conceptual knowledge, clinical skills, communication abilities, and cultural competence.
Students graduating from OHSE-supported VU degree programs pursue a range of professional goals, including graduate medical education, advanced clinical practice, clinically based research and continuing professional development, all of which can take place at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
Graduate Medical Education
For additional training in their chosen specialty, residents and fellows pursue Graduate Medical Education at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Some as new physicians or other professionals, some who are already board-eligible in one specialty and obtaining additional specialty training, these house staff join the ranks of more than 1,000 others in more than 100 residency and fellowship programs, caring for patients of today while preparing for patients of tomorrow. OHSE provides a pathway for residents and fellows to start (or continue) the journey into their independent professional pathway.
Center for Programs in Allied Health
OHSE supports the Center for Programs in Allied Health in the training of credentialed professionals who perform supportive, diagnostic, and therapeutic health care services. These non-physician and non-nursing students acquire residential and blended distance education in medical laboratory science, nuclear medicine technology, diagnostic medical sonography, cardiovascular perfusion, and a dietetic internship for future registered dietitian nutritionists. As the number of these programs expand to meet health care workforce needs, OHSE staff will provide information about financial aid opportunities, design instructional aids for faculty and students, and work to ready health care professionals to enter careers at sites like Vanderbilt University Medical Center. CPiAH and our allied health enterprise also welcome visiting students who seek opportunities at VUMC.
Vanderbilt Medical Alumni Association
Upon completion of degree, residency, and certificate programs, learners join the ranks of esteemed alumni across the country. Our Medical Alumni Association works to keep each program graduate connected to our community, offering access to library resources, alumni news, various discounts, and access to Vanderbilt facilities. Each Vanderbilt graduate, intern, resident, fellow, and faculty member remains a member of the alumni community.
Continuous Professional Development (CPD)/ Continuing Medical Education (CME)
Physicians and other health care professionals are lifelong learners and OHSE is here to support their educational and professional journeys throughout their careers. Rooted in practice-based learning and interprofessional development, the office for Continuous Professional Development offers learning opportunities to physicians and other members of the health care team that will enable them to provide the very best possible care to their patients and perform optimally in their other professional responsibilities as measured by improvements in competence, performance, and patient health status. Physicians and educators maintain their certifications and develop new skills as educators at a leading academic medical institution where educational and research missions synergize to seek new treatments or cures to illnesses and solutions to inequities. This continuum starts again as these professionals use cutting-edge skills and technology to teach subsequent generations entering Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.
Center for Experiential Learning and Assessment
The Center for Experiential Learning and Assessment (CELA) provides an educationally rich simulation environment for training our health care professionals to practice the highest quality clinical care. The application of clinical knowledge and the development of skills to diagnose successfully and treat patients effectively requires deliberate and meaningful practice. Opportunities to practice clinical management may be limited, because many specific clinical problems occur infrequently and are usually complicated by confounding factors. Simulation technology has now become a standard for medical education, surgical training, and health care team training. Such programs have resulted in improved performance, quicker response time, and less deviation from practice standards. Health care simulators increase trainee confidence and competence, improve patient safety, and can also yield cost and process efficiencies. Our work is grounded in theory-based research and informed by the best educational practices for competent clinical practice. Throughout our continuum, from student to lifelong learning practitioner, OHSE programs like the Center for Experiential Learning and Assessment offer spaces and programs for education using deliberate practice, assessment, research, and health system integration in facilitating patient safety.
Our commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion likewise extends across each phase in our continuum, working to learn and advance care and resources for all our students, employees, and patients.
No matter where you are in your career, OHSE stands ready to support you.