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    • Who Should Apply?
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Who Should Apply?

Participants are established health professionals and may be from many areas in health care: nursing (including acute care, public health and communicable disease control), medicine, dietetics, social work, community health, community development, health promotion, environmental health, epidemiology, health inspection, rehabilitation, mental health, or health services administration. They range from front-line clinicians to senior managers. Some hold full-time positions focused on research, outcomes, or evaluation; others integrate this way of thinking into their daily responsibilities for programs and patients.

SEARCH participants usually maximize value to their organization if they possess:

1. An undergraduate degree
2. Five - seven years work experience in a field relevant to healthcare
3. The support of their manager and health agency
4. A love of learning and ability to communicate and share information
5. An interest in scholarly practice, producing and using research evidence.

Different organizations approach their strategy for becoming an evidence-friendly organization in different ways. The following factors have been found to be predictive of the SEARCH Program having a strong impact on the individual and the organization.

Individual Assets:

1. Curious and interested in lifelong learning and inter-professional education.
2. Able to juggle competing priorities.
3. Comfortable interacting with a diverse group of mature participants.
4. Enjoys teamwork, willing to negotiate.
5. Interested in applied health research - any discipline, method.

Professional Role:

1. Team member of a project of focus team embedded in organization.
2. Experienced and respected among colleagues.
3. Interested in improving outcomes through collaborative, research-based practice.
4. Committed to and valued by the organization, with adequate links to decision-making processes.
5. Appropriate autonomy, authority or support for project implementation.
6. Interested in priority issues and topics for the organization.
7. Has management support for negotiation and problem-solving.
8. Understands the organizational strategy and expectations from SEARCH.

Organizational Assets:

1. Senior management interest in SEARCH project and participant, with an identified mentor or champion for research and research-based practice.
2. Selection of projects based on organizational needs and priorities.
3. Commitment to evidence-based decisions as a way of doing business.
4. Support for ongoing activity following program completion.
5. Structures and processes to access information, and effective dissemination and integration of project findings.
6. Interest in developing networks that increase cross-organization collaboration.