Postdoctoral Fellow - Neurosciences, Rehabilitation & Vision Strategic Clinical Network

This position has a term length of 1 year and offers a benefits package found at Postdoctoral Fellows Benefits .

Location - This role is hybrid with a mix of remote and in person work at North Campus Edmonton.

Working for the University of Alberta

The University of Alberta acknowledges that we are located on Treaty 6 territory, and respects the histories, languages and cultures of First Nations, Métis, Inuit and all First Peoples of Canada, whose presence continues to enrich our vibrant community.

The University of Alberta is teeming with change makers, community builders, and world shapers who lead with purpose each and every day. We are home to more than 40,000 students in 200+ undergraduate and 500+ graduate programs, over 13,000 faculty and staff, 260,000 alumni worldwide and have been recognized as one of Canada’s Greenest Employers for over a decade.

Your work will have a meaningful influence on a fascinating cross section of people—from our students and stakeholders, to our renowned researchers and innovators who are quite literally curing diseases, making discoveries and generating solutions that make the world healthier, safer, stronger, and more just.

Working for The Neurosciences, Rehabilitation & Vision Strategic Clinical Network (NRV SCN)

The Neurosciences, Rehabilitation & Vision Strategic Clinical Network (NRV SCN), Alberta Health Services, in conjunction with the Faculty of Nursing, University of Alberta, is looking for a postdoctoral fellow for a 1-year embedded research opportunity in health services and policy research. The focus of this work will be to explore the provincial role, need and impact of multidisciplinary rehabilitation in Alberta, particularly in the context of Long COVID.

Organization’s Impact Goal

At Alberta Health Services, the Neurosciences, Rehabilitation & Vision Strategic Clinical Network (NRV SCN) brings together stakeholders from prevention, healthcare, research, and policy to lead and support evidence-informed improvements and bring innovation to Alberta’s health system in three clinical streams: neurosciences, rehabilitation and vision. https://www.albertahealthservices.ca/scns/Page13565.aspx

The NRV SCN has identified three key strategic directions:a) co-design transformations in care through evidence; b) harness innovation to drive care excellence across the continuum; and c) enhance equitable access to quality care. The specific priorities within these strategic directions include (i) develop an evaluation system for neurosciences, rehabilitation and vision care; (ii) address gaps and variation in care, and barriers to equitable access; (c) build clinical pathways and service delivery; and (d) identify and integrate virtual innovation solutions. The post-doctoral fellow will be involved in seminal work related to addressing gaps and variation in care, and barriers to equitable access, specific to multidisciplinary rehabilitation. This work will involve engagement with an interdisciplinary team of healthcare professionals, researchers, patient and family advisors, community and industry partners, policy makers and health system operational leaders.

Position 

The NRV SCN seeks to provide a highly-qualified post-doctoral fellow studying health services and policy research (HSPR), or related fields, a unique opportunity to apply their research and analytic talents to critical challenges in health care affecting Albertan populations implicated by the rehabilitation care. This embedded research opportunity allows fellows the opportunity to work outside of the traditional scholarly setting, and to develop professional experience, new skills, and networks directly applicable to the health system.

The post-doctoral fellow will receive a paid one-year experiential learning opportunity. The award equates to a $60,000 stipend per annum. For exceptional candidates who produce high quality work during this fellowship and meet funding eligibility criteria, there may be the opportunity for extension of the 1-year term.

Proposed Post-Doctoral Research Project

The NRV SCN has collaborated with provincial multidisciplinary stakeholders since 2020 in co-designing, implementing and evaluating rehabilitation responses to long COVID. In 2024-2025, the provincial model of care for long COVID care (medical and rehabilitation) is evolving. This raises three inter-related questions for a learning health system such as Alberta Health Services: (1) what is the impact of the long COVID rehabilitation responses to-date; (2) how do we evaluate the evolving long COVID model of care (and what are early learnings); and, (3) how can we articulate, scale and spread the learnings of a coordinated provincial rehabilitation response to long COVID to other conditions affecting Albertans in a way that advances equity, accessibility, effectiveness, and efficiency. 

Type of Work 

The fellow will be involved in a number of activities that may include:

• Co-designing, operationalizing, collecting, analyzing and reporting a mixed-methods evaluation of the provincial rehabilitation response to Long COVID based on early suggestions from multidisciplinary stakeholders and the NRV SCN
• Collaborating with and supporting provincial working groups with evidence synthesis, data analyses and report writing towards the shared goal of building, implementing, and evaluating an updated provincial long COVID Model of Care
• Co-designing, operationalizing and reporting a rigourous research methodology to advance understanding on how provincial approaches to innovation and improvement in rehabilitation can advance equity, access and outcomes
• Scoping reviews, or other knowledge synthesis methodology, of standards of practice, best practices, models of care, and evaluation of outcomes.
• Stakeholder engagement activities and priorities to ensure integrated knowledge translation throughout the project
• Preparing written and oral deliverables around project updates and final outputs, designed for diverse audiences (e.g. health system, community partners, academic audiences)
• Collaborating with multiple stakeholders, including healthcare professionals, academics, patient and family advisors, community partners, policy makers and health system operational leaders.

Students are supervised by the Assistant Scientific Director and Scientific Director of the NRV SCN. 

Eligibility

Application Instructions:

• Please submit your cover letter and resume as one document under "Resume & Cover Letter"
• Please submit a copy of 1 relevant journal publication related to the research area where you are the first author under "Other"

At the University of Alberta, we are committed to creating an inclusive and accessible hiring process for all candidates. If you require accommodations to participate in the interview process, please let us know at the time of booking your interview and we will make every effort to accommodate your needs.

Note: Online applications are accepted until midnight Mountain Standard Time of the closing date.