Vanderbilt Consortium LEND (VCL) Leadership Seminars 2

School of Medicine

The Leadership series fosters development of effective leadership competencies by providing opportunities for students to read research-based leadership, business administration and management, and organizational psychology literature that they would not be exposed to in their primary professional training. They glean leadership skills by teaching each other the material in the required readings; discussing case scenarios in their interprofessional groups; practicing communication skills, advocacy, negotiation skills, and conflict resolution through role playing and group discussions; and applying the knowledge and skills taught in the leadership seminar to a personal or professional situation. LEND faculty members in each group also provide training in leadership by modeling leadership skills as well as sharing their personal leadership experiences during the evening seminars and in their responses to the trainees' critical reflections. Content for each monthly Leadership Seminar on the LEND Moodle contains learning objectives and required readings or other activities that are completed before each two-hour evening seminar. Readings are chosen from the seminal leadership, business and management, organizational psychology, and neuroscience literature. Students, including the medical student(s) in this certificate program, are assigned to interprofessional groups of six to seven for the Leadership Seminars; the groups are different than the Core Curriculum groups so the trainees have experience working in different interprofessional teams. Each team is facilitated by two LEND faculty from diverse professions, and each session is led by the LEND director. The formats for the evening seminars include small group case-based discussions, role-playing, and large group debriefs and discussions. After each session, each trainee applies the concepts or principles taught in the session to a scenario in her or his personal or professional life and writes a one-page critical reflection paper on which a faculty member provides feedback.