Enhancing skills for evidence-based healthcare leadership: the Executive Training for Research Application (EXTRA) program.

The Executive Training for Research Application (EXTRA) is a new training program that aims to increase the skills of health services executives and their organizations to use research evidence in healthcare management and decision-making. This paper describes the goals and rationale of the EXTRA program and its learning objectives and curriculum, and reports on some early baseline evaluative research. In particular, the authors address the opportunities that EXTRA offers to leaders in the nursing profession to transform the practice of nursing and patient care, and the unique opportunities that the program offers for collaboration across the healthcare professions and disciplines. While the EXTRA training program requires substantive investment of time and commitment by healthcare leaders and their organizations, it offers great potential for increasing research application in healthcare leadership decision-making. It is therefore a potential long-term lever of cultural decision-making change within healthcare organizations.