Program Description

Building Leaders to Improve Patient Care Practices

What is the CAP Innovation Fellowship Program?

The CAP Innovation Fellowship Program offers an opportunity for point-of-care health professionals to improve the quality of care by leading a quality improvement project that aligns with strategic priorities on their patient care unit and with corporate areas of focus.

The Fellowship Program began in 2010 as the Nurses for Tomorrow (N4T) Innovation and Research Fellowship Program, and gained national recognition in 2012 by Accreditation Canada as an Innovative Leading Practice. The program builds leadership capacity providing a unique opportunity for professional development and supports job satisfaction, employee recruitment and retention strategies. The program is entering its 9th year and has involved over 130 fellows from UHN. The Fellowship Program embraces the philosophy that clinicians who provide direct patient care know what needs to be improved and how best to improve it.

This Fellowship Program has expanded to include participants across health professionals, a partnership with Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre through the Toronto Academic Health Services Network (TAHSNp) and with other health sectors (e.g. VHA Home HealthCare).

What are the program objectives of the CAP Innovation Fellowship?

This Fellowship program has three main objectives:

1. To improve quality and safety of practices related to patient care and service delivery.
   
   
2. To build leadership capacity in front-line clinicians (and non-clinicians) by undertaking a quality improvement project that directly impacts patient care or service delivery.
   
   
3. To integrate interprofessional collaboration (IPC) and broad stakeholder engagement (both internally and externally) to enable knowledge building and implementation of best practices.
   

What are the learning objectives for fellows?

Fellows acquire knowledge by participating in education seminars and develop skills by applying this knowledge during the planning and implementation of a quality improvement project.

Competency development will vary for each fellow and links to the organization’s employee development program. However, required leadership competencies for successful planning and implementation of quality improvement projects include:

• Communication (e.g. briefing notes, elevator pitches)
  
• Building Relationships (i.e. interprofessional collaboration, stakeholder engagement, identifying champions)
  
• Change Management (e.g. overcoming barriers, conflict resolution)
  
• Influence, Persuasion and Motivation (e.g. managing up to engage leaders)
  
• Time Management, Organization and Planning
  
• Critical Thinking and Evaluation.
  

The curriculum (content and its delivery) for the Fellowship program and its evaluation is built upon current evidence, best practices for education, leadership and quality improvement literature.