At Nova Scotia Health, we are the largest academic health science network in Atlantic Canada. We work closely with IWK Health and Dalhousie University Faculty of Medicine to cultivate an environment of lifelong learning and education for medical students and residents. This alliance provides our learners with access to quality education, first-rate mentoring and world-class research in both classroom and practical settings.
Our medical education services team works in collaboration with Dalhousie University to support to the facility-based training models for medical students and residents in the Maritimes. Our medical education services team also work to support and administer the Maritime Resident Doctors (MARDOCS) collective bargaining process as it relates to resident contracts within the Maritimes.
- In 2019, the Dalhousie University Family Medicine Residency Training Program expanded to its fifth rural site in North Nova. Six to eight residents each year will train in Cumberland, Colchester, Antigonish, and Pictou counties. This program is now available in Annapolis Valley, South West Nova, Cape Breton, Halifax, and North Nova. The program expanded it's Cape Breton location to include Inverness, a great site to highlight rural medical practice in Nova Scotia.
- In 2020, Dalhousie expanded its Longitudinal Integrated Medical Clerkship to the South Shore communities of Bridgewater, Lunenburg and Liverpool. These communities now welcome five third-year medical students for the entire year. This expands on the previous model with more rural exposure, as traditionally, these students would spend shorter placements in communities across the province. This program brings a great sense of fulfillment to local physicians who will teach these students as their preceptors.
- The Province of Nova Scotia added 16 seats to Dalhousie Medical School beginning in the 2020 school year. The seats are for Nova Scotia students from three groups: rural communities, Mi’kmaq and other Indigenous peoples, and African Nova Scotians. This increases the total number of first-year undergraduate medical school seats to 94.
- In September 2021, Annapolis Valley completed construction on a new housing project on the grounds of Valley Regional Hospital to support medical learners. The community of Yarmouth is also constructing residences for medical learners to encourage more training in their area that will be ready for occupancy in early 2022.
- In 2021, Medical Affairs worked with Dalhousie University to redesign the medical education services support in each Nova Scotia Health regional facility. Additional administrative support was added to support postgraduate and undergraduate medical learners and to help coordinate their presence at the regional sites.
