Fellowship Program

Beginning in 2022, the Department of Orthopaedics developed an educational program for Vanderbilt Orthopaedic fellows. The intent is to provide additional educational opportunities and tools to support a successful academic and research career, and focused professional and personal development. The curriculum has fellows meet approximately every two weeks for a lecture or opportunity for discussion and interaction with each other, faculty members or local alumni.

To date, discussions have included how to start a research career; tools for critically reviewing the literature; basics of statistics; and how to conduct a systematic review. We have also had sessions on career advice, contracts and negotiations. Future sessions will highlight mindfulness; how to deal with complications; providing and receiving mentorship; ethics; and financial planning.

We feel this program is an opportunity for fellows to get to know other Vanderbilt fellows in their cohort and broaden their knowledge while preparing for their next career stage. We hope this will be an attractive selling point to future fellows and further prepare fellows for a career in academics or community practice. We plan to make this an annual curriculum, with focused evaluation to continue to improve the content in years to come.