Who should apply?
The new EXTRA fellowships are available to teams composed of two to four individuals who have completed professional training in any health discipline, including medical practitioners, nurses, allied health professionals, health managers and policy-makers. It is expected that recipients of EXTRA team fellowships will have completed their initial professional training in the last five to 15 years, have an ongoing commitment to the application of evidence in healthcare, and occupy leadership roles in their organizations. The team applicant(s) must provide strong evidence of support from their organization(s) throughout the tenure of the fellowship.
a) Team applicants from healthcare organizations
Applicants from healthcare delivery organizations can apply as single organizational teams, multi-site teams, or as cross-jurisdictional teams. While most quality improvement focuses on specific programs and services, EXTRA team fellowships encourage participation of teams constituted across organizations and jurisdictions with a focus on improvements in, for example, transitions of care related to ALC, continuum of care integration between different parts of the system, interventions focused on high-priority performance issues such as infection control, and more effective alignment of services across hospitals and community providers.
Individuals from small organizations who may not be in a position to put forward a team are strongly encouraged to join teams from larger organizations, or across jurisdictions, to work on intervention projects of common interest.
Typical job titles for team members include chief of nursing, chief of medicine, vice-president or chief operating officer. Directors and department heads/chiefs from these executive streams who have a significant scope of influence and authority in the organization, and who can demonstrate that they are on a career trajectory to leadership positions, are eligible to apply. The problem to be addressed in the intervention project must be clear and well defined in the application submission. The intervention projects must be fully aligned with organizational strategic priorities and the work responsibilities of the team members.
Applications from multi-site teams must be submitted by the CEO of the organization willing to take the lead for the team, must include a physician leader on the team, and must include signatures of the CEO(s) of the other participating organizations.
b) Team applicants from government ministries or departments
Policy-makers currently occupying senior leadership positions whose responsibilities include significant linkages to providers of direct care and delivery of services are eligible to apply as a single government department team or across policy jurisdictions, including teams that are made up of individuals from the policy and delivery sectors. Team applicants must identify an intervention project closely aligned with ministry priorities in implementing healthcare improvement policies in conjunction with local healthcare organizations and/or authorities. Examples of interventions include efforts to scale up and spread successful improvements across the system; system planning that uses the needs of patients to help focus improvements; and more effective alignment of improvement priorities and activities between the policy and delivery sectors.
Typical job titles for team members include assistant deputy minister, director general, executive director and managers with significant span of authority. These are individuals whose jobs and responsibilities have a significant scope of influence within government and/or who can demonstrate that they are on a career trajectory to more senior leadership positions. Team applications from a government ministry must be submitted by the deputy minister(s).
Multi-organizational teams will need to identify one lead organization and have sign-off by all sponsoring organizations.