EXTRA Regional Mentoring Centres (RMC)

As part of the supports available to EXTRA Fellows for the development and implementation of their Intervention Project (and in addition to mentors, coaches, faculty, and organizational sponsors), the EXTRA mentoring model builds on the infrastructure, networks, and expertise of another initiative of the Canadian Health Services Research Foundation (CHSRF): the Capacity for Applied and Developmental Research and Evaluation in Health Services and Nursing (or CADRE) program.

One key component of the CADRE program is four Regional Training Centres across Canada:

• the Western Regional Training Centre or WRTC (encompassing British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba);
• the Ontario Training Centre in Health Services and Policy Research or OTC;
• the Centre de Formation et d’Expertise en Recherche en Administration des Services Infirmiers or FERASI Centre in Québec; and
• the Atlantic Regional Training Centre or ARTC (encompassing Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and New Brunswick).

Through their partnership with CHSRF, and for the purpose of the EXTRA program, these regional training centres operate, as the EXTRA Regional Mentoring Centres:

• the WRTC as the Western Regional Mentoring Centre;
• the OTC as the Ontario Regional Mentoring Centre;
• the FERASI Centre as the Québec Regional Mentoring Centre; and
• the ARTC as the Atlantic Regional Mentoring Centre.

The regional mentoring centres are the direct contact point for the Fellow-Mentor relationships in the regions. Their role is to ensure that support is provided to EXTRA Fellows with the academic course material and intervention projects (both in their design and implementation).

Mentoring centres hold an orientation session each May for the Fellows, Mentors, researchers, and interested decision makers in the region to introduce the new cohort of Fellows to potential Mentors and create more opportunities for collaboration between the research and applied worlds.

A key activity of the Fellows in the EXTRA program is applying the concepts and theoretical information from the academic curriculum to real-life conditions in the home organization. The mentoring centres ensure the intervention projects garner special attention in the mentoring component, from both the mentoring team and the mentoring centre leads.

The OTC is a consortium of six Ontario universities that offers graduate training leading to a Diploma in Health Services and Policy Research at Lakehead, Laurentian, McMaster, Ottawa, and York universities and to an equivalent qualification through the Collaborative Graduate Program in Health Services and Policy Research at the University of Toronto.

For the purpose of the EXTRA Program, the OTC operates as the Ontario Regional Mentoring Centre, with Rhonda Cockerill (University of Toronto) as the EXTRA Program Coordinator and Miguel A. Pérez (OTC Program Manager) as the EXTRA Program Assistant.

For additional contacts go to CHSRF-EXTRA Contacts.