Location: University of Alberta Hospital (Candidates must be working at University of Alberta Hospital)

The Surgeon Champions (Champions) primary role is to advocate and mentor for surgical quality and outcomes improvement within their participating site and Zone, facilitating success of the program. Accountable to the provincial Surgery SCN and Zone Surgery Leadership Team, the Champions act as liaisons between administration and surgeons/anesthesiologists and serve as leaders for quality improvement initiatives within their site and Zone to foster positive outcomes for perioperative patient care.

The Champions have professional and close working relationships with the NSQIP Surgical Clinical Reviewers (SCR) and ERAS Clinical Nurse Instructors (CNI) (for sites that have an ERAS program) to support their work abstracting clinical data and educating clinical teams. As a team, they regularly report on reliable and clinically meaningful postoperative outcomes data to their healthcare colleagues and administration at their site and Zone and develop and implement site and Zone quality improvement initiatives with an aim to improve patient outcomes.

The Champion must be trusted and respected by his or her peers and administration. They should be dedicated to quality improvement and to working with others to promote change where required and are expected to stimulate collaboration across specialties at the site by working together as Surgeon and Anesthesia Champions. Strong communication skills are a must. The Champion should be persistent, have self-confidence, be comfortable interacting with others, and be a good listener. The nature of the Surgeon Champions relationships with colleagues at the site and within the Zone will ultimately determine the success of the program.

In a competent and professional manner, the Champion will:

• Be the primary NSQIP & ERAS spokespersons and advocates at the site and within the Zone.
• Regularly meet, review data, and share learnings with Surgical Section Leads, Site Surgical and Operational Leadership team, Zone Surgical and Operational Leadership, and at Zone meetings with quality as a standing agenda item such as the Surgery ZCDEC meetings.
• Establish and maintain positive relationships with healthcare staff and stakeholders within site surgical operations, striving to increase communication, collaboration, shared learning & engagement around surgical pathways and best practices.
• Promote an environment that fosters quality improvement & a culture of safety for staff & patients.
• Be an effective communicator with strong organizational skills, influential skills, and the commitment to providing quality patient care.
• Be a proven leader with a strong commitment to operating within a team environment and motivate and inspire others to achieve common goals.
• Regularly meet with the NSQIP SCR and ERAS CNI teams to review data and plan/execute activities.
• Present findings and recommendations to site and Zone medical leadership regarding opportunities for quality initiatives based on site reporting (monthly & quarterly).
• Lead surgical quality improvement initiatives at their site and Zone in partnership with clinical operations colleagues.
• Regularly attend provincial MD Champion update calls to share learnings and status with colleagues and SCN QI MD leads.
• Participate in Surgery Strategic Clinical Network learning sessions as part of the site and Zone surgical QI team.