The province wants to help NS doctors who are trained abroad come back home. There will be 10 more residency seats being added in the province next year, under the 2023 Nova Scotia International Medical Graduates Program, for doctors studying internationally. This will bring the total spots to 16.
Dalhousie University gets about 800 applicants for these coveted spots every year.
It’s part of the Canadian Resident Matching Service Program that connects all applicants with open spots at medical schools in Canada, and now those who are from Nova Scotia, will get first priority. If the spots go unfilled by Nova Scotians during the first round, it will be opened up to other international medical graduates, with the agreement to work in an area in the province where there is high need, for five years after completing the program.
“We know that doctors stay and practice where they train. Without this pathway, these students are forced to accept a residency program wherever they can find a match. If they match outside Canada, they have a longer pathway to come home. Some are spending five to 10 years in another country at that crucial age when people start to lay down roots and build community. This program will make a real and immediate difference for Nova Scotians.”
– Dr. Nicole Boutilier, Vice-President of Medicine, Nova Scotia Health, and co-lead of the Office of Healthcare Professionals Recruitment
“This program will allow and encourage more graduating doctors with ties to the province to not only finish their training here, but to stay afterward and begin their careers in primary care.”
– Dr. Jordan Morash, graduate, University of Wollongong Graduate School of Medicine, Australia; currently practicing in Cape Breton Regional Municipality
“We are excited by the investment that the provincial government has made in expanding family medicine residency positions in Nova Scotia. We look forward to welcoming these international medical school graduates to Dalhousie and providing them with excellent family medicine residency training and then having them work in our province.”
– Dr. David Anderson, Dean, Faculty of Medicine, Dalhousie University
Students begin applying on Wednesday, December 7.
There are also 10 new residency seats in family medicine across NS for next year.
