Table 1 A sample calendar outlining the one-week schedule of the OPEP program. Morning blocks consisted of 1-h interactive lectures featuring different areas of psychiatry. Instructors were asked to primarily discuss their particular practice and inspiration for psychiatry, though some introduction of didactic material was encouraged. Instructors were primarily paid through departmental funds from each respective hospital, while residents were reimbursed through their resident education fund. One lecture was a client panel where patients spoke of their experiences in the mental health system. Instructors were from mixed backgrounds, with many notable senior instructors having a track record of academic excellence including national and international prizes, along with younger instructors early in their careers with strong teaching evaluations to provide a role model and a varied perspective for students to visualize a potential career in psychiatry. Recruitment of instructors deliberately reflected at least 50% female instructors, with particular attention being paid to recruit female leaders in our department, including our residency training director, and the chair of our department among others. The Department of Psychiatry of Ottawa provided lunch each day with selected residents with a history of academic excellence and noted interest in education, in randomized clusters of approximately 3–4 attendees per resident. Lunch provided an opportunity to have an open time to network and discuss psychiatry as a career in a relaxed setting, without attending staff doctors present. Afternoons consisted of 2 h “observerships where students were matched with preceptors to get more “hands on” experience in different areas of psychiatry (mostly in outpatient settings if possible). Each afternoon, learners were matched with different psychiatrists, to provide the widest breadth of experience of psychiatry as a field. Examples of different observerships included forensic psychiatry, child psychiatry, geriatric psychiatry, sleep medicine and many others

From: A week long “pep” talk – initial and 2–3-year longitudinal data on the Ottawa Psychiatry Enrichment Program (OPEP)