Leadership

Executive Training for Research Application (EXTRA)

Madeleine Boulay Bolduc

EXTRA Fellow, 2007: Madeleine Boulay Bolduc, MN

Current position: Associate Director of Nursing, Clinical and Professional Staff Development Service, McGill University Health Centre (MUHC)

Current job role:

• Providing leadership in assuring the development of professional nursing practice across all  MUHC clinical programs
• Actively participating in the development and implementation of an evidence-based program
• Establishing collaborative relationships with colleagues from other professions to address some important corporate priorities, such as putting in place structures, processes and tools to support the harmonization of evidence-informed clinical practice
• Developing and implementing an overall development plan for the different roles within the nursing department.

Intervention project: Enabling Interprofessional Teams in Providing Evidence-informed Clinical Care

The MUHC was created by the amalgamation of five university teaching hospitals. In April 2008, one new hospital joined the MUHC. The MUHC is currently transitioning from six to three sites. A systematic approach to harmonizing evidence-informed clinical practice is imperative for a successful transition. There is currently great variability in the use of an evidence-informed decision-making (EIDM) approach when harmonizing clinical practice.

The intervention project includes three components:

1. Improve the EIDM process: A literature review helped identify the different elements, including facilitators and barriers, of the EIDM process. Consultation with a newly formed interprofessional team provided pertinent information about the support needed for using the EIDM process. An EIDM interactive tool is in development.
   
   
2. Build organizational capability and capacity: The literature review identified the need to nurture an EIDM environment to develop expertise. As a result, an EIDM support role was introduced.
   
   
3. Propose an organizational dissemination plan: The EIDM interactive tool, along with the new support role, will be piloted with an interprofessional team harmonizing a clinical practice. The results, along with the chosen evidence-informed diffusion model, will shape the organizational diffusion plan.

Some of the outcome indicators to be measured are as follows: number of teams using the EIDM process, number of worked hours by the persons in the EIDM support role, number of teams having completed the EIDM training and number of clinical practices having been harmonized using the EIDM process.

EXTRA benefits:

The career and personal benefits I derived from my EXTRA participation include the following:

• having the opportunity to work on an organizational priority while receiving the support and counsel of prominent leaders in the health field;
• shaping and operationalizing the intervention project within an interprofessional context;
• having access to a wealth of current and pertinent information;
• increasing my profile within my organization; and
• gaining organizational recognition as an evidence-based practice leader.

Most significant skills acquired through EXTRA:

• Gaining a greater level of comfort in formulating and expressing my thoughts publicly
• Gaining more knowledge and ease in formulating a question, conducting a literature review, synthesizing the findings and incorporating these into a project text
• Using evidence-informed decision-making processes in my day-to-day work
• Strengthening my ability to effectively lead interprofessional teams
• Identifying and maximizing strategic moment