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Halifax - Family Medicine - Palliative Care

Dalhousie UniversityHalifax, Nova ScotiaCompetitive stream

Enhanced skills (FM/ES) match

Family medicine residents applying for a PGY-3 year (the "+1").

At a glance

Approx. quota
2 positions
Length
1 year
Applications per year
0–50
Offered interviews
76–100%

Competitive stream · open to Canadian and international medical graduates

Interviews

2 dates, 19–20 Oct 2026virtual

Halifax, 2 teaching sites

A car is recommended

CaRMS program page(opens in a new tab)

What stands out about this program

  • Required 2-4 week rotation in Palliative and Therapeutic Harmonization (PATH), a geriatrics service.

    From “Program highlights” on the CaRMS page

  • Required 8-week community palliative care placement at a distributed site, usually in New Brunswick.

    From “Training sites” on the CaRMS page

  • This one-year enhanced skills program in palliative care leads to eligibility for the CFPC Certificate of Added Competence in Palliative Care.
  • Training is based at the QEII Health Sciences Centre in Halifax, with at least 8 weeks at a distributed site, usually in New Brunswick.
  • Call is taken from home on weeknights.

The summary is written by CdnMD from the program’s CaRMS description.

What training looks like

Setting
  • Academic / tertiary hospital
  • Regional community
Rural exposure
Not stated on CaRMS page
Research
Required · scholarly or quality-improvement project
Getting around
  • A car is recommended
  • Travel is reimbursed

By year

Not stated on CaRMS page

Other rotations

Listed by the program without a single year.

  • Palliative Care (22-24 weeks)
  • Palliative Care - Community (8 weeks · Palliative care at a distributed site (usually New Brunswick))
  • Pediatrics (2 weeks · IWK Health Centre, Halifax, NS.)
  • Palliative and Therapeutic Harmonization (Geriatrics) (2-4 weeks · QEII Health Sciences Centre)
  • Oncology (4 weeks · QEII Health Sciences Centre)
  • Electives (12 weeks · Location to be determined.)

✓ = the CaRMS page states it; – = not stated. From the program description and its rotation list.

Where you train

Halifax, Nova Scotia: 2 teaching sites. A car is recommended.

  • QEII Health Sciences Centre
  • IWK Health Centre

Record systems at the listed sites: Oracle Health (Cerner) at 2 of 2.

Hospital facts

2 sites · public figures and clinical record systems where they are published

Public figures for hospitals named above, each with its source and reference period. They describe the hospital, not the program. We match names to the sources by name, so check each source before you rely on it.

How to read the figures

  • Hospital type. As the province lists it. The list has no volumes or beds.

QEII Health Sciences Centre

Clinical record
One Person One Record, fully electronic record since May 2026 As of 31 Oct 2026

This name covers 2 hospitals in the province’s lists. Each is shown on its own, A to Z, and the numbers are never added together.

QEII - Halifax Infirmary Site (Halifax)
Hospital type
Tertiary
QEII - Victoria General (VG) Site (Halifax)
Hospital type
Tertiary

IWK Health Centre

Clinical record
Oracle Health (One Person One Record), fully electronic record since Dec 2025 As of 31 Oct 2026

Matched to IWK Health Centre (Halifax) in the province’s hospital list.

Hospital type
Tertiary

Nova Scotia's One Person One Record is live at IWK Health and at Nova Scotia Health's Central Zone. The other zones follow, provincewide by the end of 2026 (the province's date). As of 31 Oct 2026

Verify with the official source: each source button opens the publisher’s own page.

Sources and licences

  • Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Nova Scotia.

About Halifax

  • People

    439,819residents, 2021 Census

    Municipality of Halifax

  • Housing

    2.6%rental vacancy rate

    October 2025 survey, Halifax, Nova Scotia (census metropolitan area)

  • Winter and summer

    −4.1 °CJanuary mean18.5 °CJuly mean

    1991–2020 normals, Shearwater, 11.0 km away

  • Job outlook

    not published for this specialty

More about Halifax (its page: housing, getting around, weather, things to do, and every program that names it)

Sites as the program’s CaRMS page lists them. City figures are public statistics for the place named by the location; they describe the place, not the program.

How they choose

Application file components
  • CV
  • Electives
  • Examinations
  • Extra-curricular
  • Leadership skills
  • MSPRs
  • Personal letters
  • Reference documents
  • Research/Publications
  • Transcripts
Return of service
Not stated on CaRMS page

Application file components as the program describes them.

Interviews and info sessions

Interview dates (FM/ES 2027 match)
19 and 20 Oct 2026
Format
Virtual
  • Panel

Interview dates and format are as the program wrote them.

Pay and call

Provincial scale, last updated 24 Jul 2026 · check the current agreement(opens in a new tab). One provincial scale for Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, set by the resident agreement, so every program there pays the same. Showing PGY-3, the level FM/ES residents usually start at. Yours depends on your training so far.

Annual salary by PGY level, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island
LevelAnnual salary
PGY-3
$89,462 / year

How provincial pay and rent compare

Call

Call (as the program states it)
Home call
Call (provincial max)
1 night in 4 in-house
Post-call rule (provincial)
No work required once handover is completed
Max continuous duty (provincial)
Handover begins by the 24th consecutive hour on duty

The union agreement’s limits and rules for all residents in the province; your program’s actual call schedule may be lighter. MarDocs agreement, 1 Jul 2024 to 30 Jun 2027. Read as of 1 Oct 2026.

Benefits

13 lines as listed by CaRMS in 2022–2024: Annual vacation, Call stipend, CMPA dues paid, and more
Annual vacation
4 weeks
Call stipend
Yes
CMPA dues paid
Yes
Dental coverage
Yes
Educational leave
Yes
Extended health insurance
Yes
Life insurance
$100,000 of insurance
Long-term disabilityinsurance
66.7% of salary
Maternity leave top up after one year’s service
eligible for up to a maximum of 17 weeks top-up allowance for maternity/pregnancy leave
Provincial dues (% of salary)
1.30%
Provincial health insurance
Yes
Sick leave
Yes
Statutory and floating holidays
paid

Contacts and links

Program director
Program office

Enhanced Skills Program Administrator

Write to the officefmes@dal.ca

Per CaRMS. Staff change during the cycle, so check the CaRMS program page(opens in a new tab) before emailing.

Dalhousie Enhanced Skills - Palliative Care (PALL)(opens in a new tab)This program on CaRMS(opens in a new tab)

Family Medicine - Palliative Care elsewhere

Nearest to Halifax

Source

The program’s CaRMS page (opens in a new tab) · FM/ES 2027 match · last approved 27 Jul 2026.

Accredited · CaRMS program ID 34660 · How these pages are made ›

The Applications per year and Offered interviews figures are 5-year averages the program reports to CaRMS: past cycles, not your odds.

Independent. Not affiliated with CaRMS or the program. Programs edit their descriptions during the match; confirm on carms.ca (opens in a new tab) before you apply. Data last updated on CdnMD 8 Oct 2026.

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