Thank you for your interest in the Vanderbilt Child Neurology Residency Program! Our mission is to train outstanding pediatric neurologists able to handle the breadth and depth of clinical practice, with skills in leadership, team building, and problem solving. We provide broad, rigorous medical training, and we encourage and mentor our residents to develop interests outside of the clinical arena in areas such as education, quality improvement, and research.

Our residency is an ACGME-accredited, five-year categorical program that accepts four residents per year. The first two years are spent in the Pediatrics Residency, followed by three years of neurology training that have a mix of pediatric and adult neurology as specified by the American Board of Neurology and Psychiatry. For those interested in a career as a physician-scientist, the ABPN neuroscience training pathway affords additional time to work with renowned neuroscientists, as do a number of training and post-residency grants. Both our free-standing Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt and our Vanderbilt University Hospital, as well as the vast majority of our pediatric and adult neurology outpatient clinics, are all within the walkable, self-contained Vanderbilt University Medical Center campus. The Vanderbilt Kennedy Center, extensive basic, clinical and translational research facilities, the Eskind Biomedical Library, and the Vanderbilt University undergraduate and graduate schools are all also easily accessible.

From a clinical perspective, our trainees learn to care for patients with a wide range of neurologic diagnoses affecting a diverse patient population. Our wide catchment area and extensive subspecialty representation within pediatric and adult neurology ensure comprehensive training. Our rotations encompass inpatient and outpatient experience, procedural skills (to include EEG, NCV/EMG, advanced headache and spasticity treatment), neuroradiology, neuropathology, and dedicated time for scholarly projects and elective experiences. The clinical excellence of our colleagues is also important to well-rounded training, with our Level IV NICU, Platinum Level ELSO & ECMO Center of Excellence, and 10 out of 10 nationally ranked pediatric specialty programs being only a few examples.

Our educational program complements this clinical training. Throughout each academic year, residents attend daily noon conference, both Neurology and Pediatric Grand Rounds, neuroradiology conferences, Chairman’s conference, and more. In addition to topics within pediatric neurology and its related subspecialties, we also have a robust curriculum addressing career and professional development, diversity, equity in inclusion, and research development and scholarly projects. There is support for presenting scholarly work at national conferences, and our fourth- and fifth-year residents have protected time to attend the annual Child Neurology Society meeting.

In addition to the excellent training, Nashville is a fun and vibrant place to live! The city offers seemingly endless ways to spend your time – not only is it Music City, with music of all kinds being played every night at venues across town, it is also home to numerous college and professional sports teams, has a nationally-recognized restaurant scene, and is home to the Nashville Symphony Orchestra, the Nashville Ballet, the Tennessee Performing Arts Center, and of course, the Grand Ole Opry. There are parks and greenways throughout the city, and right outside the city, there are lakes, rivers, waterfalls, hiking trails, and caves – all ready to be explored!

What ties all of this together is our team! Our faculty are deeply invested in training and mentoring our residents, and our residents are a cohesive unit, dynamic and engaged. Residents help us drive change and improvement – many of the facets of our program that you will see on this site are a result of resident initiatives. As the program leadership team, we will add that our focus is to grow each resident’s experiences in a way that is personalized for their career goals, while supporting them throughout the five years we spend together.

Thank you again for your interest in our program!

Sincerely,