Status of Quality Improvement Curricula in Psychiatry Residency Programs Across Canada

Quality improvement (QI) training has become essential for residency training programs across the world. This study evaluates the current state of QI education in Canadian general psychiatry residency programs.

In 2024, a Qualtrics survey was distributed to the 17 Canadian psychiatry residency programs requesting that Program Directors confirm if they had a QI curriculum, and if so, to share the content of the curriculum, along with their experiences delivering it. In addition, the websites of all programs were reviewed to gather information on QI education.

Twelve out of 17 (70.6%) Canadian programs responded. Eight of 12 (66.7%) respondents indicated they deliver a QI curriculum, five (41.7%) of which shared a structured QI curriculum, and the remaining three did not. Four programs (33.3%) indicated they do not deliver a QI curriculum, with two (16.7%) of these programs teaching introductory QI content (one shared PowerPoint slides of a lecture), and two programs (16.7%) reported the complete absence of any formalized QI curriculum or related materials. Of the five programs who did not respond to the survey, one program mentions QI work on their psychiatry residency program's website (as a possible elective nonclinical rotation), and the remaining four have no mention of QI on their website.

There is considerable variability in QI postgraduate education practices in psychiatry programs across Canada. Action is needed to provide QI education to all residents not only to meet certification requirements, but also to address unmet societal mental healthcare needs.