The Master in Education in Health Professions Education: Why, What and What Impact?

By James K. Stoller, MD, MS

The tripartite mission of Cleveland Clinic is “better care of the sick, investigation of their problems and more teaching of those who serve.” In the context of its longstanding commitment to teaching, Cleveland Clinic has addressed the needs of many educational audiences, e.g., medical students, allied health students, graduate medical trainees, nurses, colleagues engaging in continuing medical education, healthcare visitors from around the world and international healthcare executives seeking executive education. Indeed, Cleveland Clinic’s Education Institute has been shaped over time and organized around these needs, with 10 centers currently addressing each of these audiences. For example, the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine (CCLCM) offers a novel, problem-based learning-based curriculum to a highly selected group of collaborative, mindful, research-oriented students. The Center for International Medical Education organizes observerships and preceptorships for international visiting medical professionals and offers courses that Cleveland Clinic faculty deliver abroad. The Center for Educational Resources (CER) is comprised of talented PhD medical educators who provide instruction and guidance in the design and assessment of curricula (e.g., in CCLCM and in graduate medical education [GME]), educator development and who help optimize teaching for all educational audiences.

One of the benchmarks of a successful organization is the extent to which it provides growth and pipeline development for its members in order to develop them and sustain and propel organizational success. In the context of its educational mission, Cleveland Clinic’s Education Institute serves this benchmark by providing educational growth opportunities through various pipeline programs. Two such programs are the Cleveland Clinic-Weatherhead School of Management Executive Master of Business Administration and the Master of Education in Health Professions Education (MEHPE), the latter a collaboration between the Cleveland Clinic Center for Educational Resources and Cleveland State University.

The MEHPE program was first conceived in 2012 and graduated its first cohort in 2015. The purpose of the program — a collaboration with the Cleveland State University College of Education and Human Services — is to provide a rigorous, healthcare-oriented curriculum to emerging medical educators who see acquiring educational skills as critical to their professional growth. Cultivating educational skills among caregivers aligns closely with Cleveland Clinic’s desire and need to develop a pipeline of interdisciplinary, skilled medical educators who can design and assess optimal pedagogy for its many educational audiences.

The two-year curriculum focuses on the skills needed to be a medical educator. Specifically, courses address adult learning theory, curriculum design and instruction, assessing learners, evaluating educational programs, healthcare educational research and technology in health professions education. The pedagogy is blended between live and online courses, with live courses delivered at Cleveland Clinic main campus during the evening to accommodate working health professionals. The program occupies six semesters of instruction and 30 credit hours for degree attainment.

First offered in 2013, the program has graduated two cohorts (20 individuals) with the third cohort (of nine individuals) currently under way. Alumni and current matriculants include physicians in various specialties, nurses, respiratory therapists, radiation technologists and administrators. Examples of roles played by alumni include service as Cleveland Clinic’s Designated Institutional Officer for Graduate Medical Education, director of physician advisors in CCLCM, continuing medical education director and education managers in radiology and respiratory therapy. Further description of the program can be found here.

Healthcare providers at any institution with an interest in developing their educational knowledge and skills are invited to apply. Applications can be submitted to:

Office of Graduate Admissions Processing
Cleveland State University
2121 Euclid Ave., UN 301
Cleveland, OH 44115
allin1@csu.edu

Dr. Stoller is a practicing pulmonologist, Chair of the Education Institute and holds the Jean Wall Bennett Professorship in Emphysema Research at Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine as well as the Samson Global Leadership Academy Endowed Chair.