The two sites where residents spend the majority of their time are within a 12 minute walk of each other in downtown Halifax (Mackenzie building at Victoria General Hospital, IWK Children’s Hospital)! A number of residents live close by and walk to work. During residency there are two to three months at the Nova Scotia Medical Examiner Service in Dartmouth. This is a 20-30 minute drive from the Victoria General Hospital site, and has free parking. There is also a ~3 month senior rotation in Saint John, NB where accommodation is provided in a building with other residents that is within walking distance of the hospital. Programs are also encouraged to facilitate rotations for residents within the Maritime Provinces but outside Halifax; rotations in community hospitals can provide residents with more graded responsibility and allow residents to explore different career opportunities.

During a one-month rotation at the NS Medical Examiner Service in PGY1, you will be trained to eviscerate and dissect the organ block! Within the first week, you will be applying these new skills to cases with suspected medical cause of death (under supervision of course). Most residents complete around 10 autopsies during this block.

At Dal, you can enjoy a ‘hybrid’ model of subspecialty and more general sign out. The PGY2 ‘junior AP’ and PGY5 ‘senior AP’ rotations include a group or pair of AP subspecialties (e.g. GI and H&N). Grouping subspecialties presents an opportunity for longitudinal learning. Residents are also taught by a few general surgical pathologists in Halifax, as well as during community rotations. In PGY3-5, residents rotate through individual subspecialty rotations and electives.

Maritime Resident Doctors (MarDocs) organizes tons of free events to help you meet other residents and experience Halifax, including weekly exercise classes (yoga, bootcamp) and approximately one social event per month (axe throwing, paint night, post-exam socials, wine tour, holiday party, etc).

Think of us as double the size – anatomical plus general pathology (together currently 16 residents). Residents in both programs share resident rooms, academic half day, and organize social activities together.

Come meet us and ask!