The ASPBP September 2025 Webinar, Moral Distress: An Evolving Challenge, will take place at 2 PM EDT on Wednesday, September 24, 2025. The Webinar will be led by Bonnie M. Miller, of Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.
Bonnie M. Miller, MD, MMHC
Bonnie M. Miller, MD, MMHC: Dr. Miller is a Professor of Medical Education and Administration Emeritus at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine (VUSM). She attended Colorado College for her undergraduate education, earning a Bachelor of Arts in Biology in 1976. she received her M.D. degree at the University of Oklahoma, graduating in 1980. She then moved to Nashville for six years of post-graduate training in general surgery at Vanderbilt University Affiliated Hospitals. After completing her residency, she spent one year in Seattle completing a fellowship in hepato-biliary disease at the Virginia Mason Clinic. In 1987, Dr. Miller returned to Nashville, and for 12 years served as an attending surgeon at Vanderbilt-affiliated teaching hospitals.
From 1999 until 2019, Dr. Miller served in a variety of education leadership roles at VUSM, including Associate Dean for Medical Student Affairs (1999-2006), Associate Dean for Undergraduate Medical Education (2006-2008), Senior Associate Dean for Health Sciences Education (2008-2019), Associate Vice-Chancellor for Health Affairs (2013-2016), and Executive Vice-President for Education Affairs at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC, 2016-2019). In the latter roles, she oversaw all programs related to the continuum of physician education at VUSM/VUMC. In addition, she oversaw administration of 10 other degree programs offered by VUSM, as well as certificate programs offered by VUMC's Center for Programs in Allied Health.
During her tenure, Dr. Miller guided VUSM through several cycles of curriculum reform. Specifically, she led VUSM's transition to Curriculum 2.0, an innovative program that moved core clerkships to the second year, allowed individualized pathways through the 2-year post-clerkship phase, and employed a competency-based approach to assessment. VUSM subsequently became recognized as a leader in medical education and numerous US medical schools adopted essential elements of this model. Dr. Miller has consulted with many schools that seek to transform medical education in the US and abroad.
Dr. Miller served as the principal investigator for VUSM's Accelerating Change in Medical Education grant from the American Medical Association, and was a founding board member of the Kern National Network for Caring and Character in Medicine. In addition, she received grants that supported her interests in the moral and professional development of physicians, curriculum change, technology-enhanced learning, and continuous learning in medicine. Most recently, she was the principal investigator for a grant from IBM-Watson Health that resulted in the creation of a list of interprofessional competencies for the use of artificial intelligence-based tools in clinical settings.
Since retiring from VUSM, Dr. Miller has served as a physician advisor for the Tennessee Department of Health Office of Primary Prevention, helping on special projects related to health equity, population health, and healtjh professions education.
2 PM EDT, Wednesday, September 24, 2025 - Moral Distress: An Evolving Challenge
Moral distress was first described in 1984 by Andrew Jameton in the context of clinical nursing as, "The negative emotions or feelings that arise when one knows the morally correct response to a situation but cannot take action because of hierarchical or systematic constraints." Since then, the construct has been expanded and applied widely to many professions and professional situations in which persons find themselves faced with circumstances or demands that threaten their moral integrity. This talk will review the evolution of the construct and will challenge participants to consider how recent social and political developments might create moral distress in their own professional lives. It will also explore ways of constructively dealing with moral distress.
