VA Quality Scholars (VAQS) Fellowship
VAQS is an Advanced Fellowship program supported by the Office of Academic Affiliations. This program has an inter-professional emphasis with physicians, doctoral-trained nurses, and pharmacists participating. During the two years, fellows focus on healthcare improvement research and scholarship, operations leadership, and teaching quality and safety.
The VA Quality Scholars fellowship develops the next generation of health professionals to improve healthcare through innovations, quality improvement, and patient safety. The VA Quality Scholars program consists of 10 sites across the United States, as well as an affiliate site in Toronto, Canada. Each site in the US consists of a partnership between a VA hospital and an academic institution. The Coordinating Center at the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center in Houston, Texas administers a 2-year, national curriculum along with a range of experiential training opportunities to the interprofessional, pre and postdoctoral fellows at each of the sites. Upon completing this program, fellows will demonstrate competence in:
• Interprofessional Collaboration and Teamwork
• Improvement Methods and Skills
• Organization and System Leadership for Quality and Safety
• Research
• Teaching and Learning
You will attend weekly didactic sessions, experiential learning sessions, fellows’ meetings, seminars, and other educational opportunities (such as Lean/Six Sigma training and certification, an advanced methods special interest group, and others). You will learn how to analyze problems in systems and clinical care, and how to address them through improvement science methods. You will learn to analyze data through statistical process control charts, to assess improvement interventions, and to measure processes and outcomes.
Birmingham VAQS partners with the Heersink School of Medicine and the School of Nursing at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
How to Apply
Submit a Letter of Intent (LOI) and a CV to Tracey Dick, PhD, RN, CNE, COI, CPPS (nurse applicants), Carlos Estrada, MD, MS (physician applicants), or Jarrett Wright, PharmD, MSHI (pharmacy applicants). In the LOI, indicate your main area of interest, desired outcome after the fellowship, and include the contact information for 3 references (name, title, email address). This is not a J-1 or H1-B opportunity.
Application Deadline:
Applications are accepted and reviewed on a rolling basis annually beginning October 1st and ending March 1st.
- Tracey Dick, PhD, RN, CNE, COI, CPPS. Email: tdick@uab.edu
- Carlos Estrada, MD, MS. Email: Carlos.Estrada@va.gov
- Jarrett Wright, PharmD, MSHI. Email: jarrett.wright@va.gov
To learn more, visit the Office of Academic Affiliations or the VA Quality Scholars website.