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Hamilton - Psychiatry

McMaster UniversityHamilton, Ontario

Stream

At a glance

Approx. quota
6 positions
2 positions
Length
5 years
Applications per year
51–200
Offered interviews
76–100%
0–25%

CMG stream · open to Canadian medical graduates

IMG stream · open to international medical graduates

Return of service: Required · IMGs only

Info session

details info sessions of this program

Thu 12 Nov 2026,7:00–8:00 pm ESTvia CANPREPP source (opens in a new tab)

Interviews

3 dates, 25 Jan – 1 Feb 2027virtual

2 dates, 25–28 Jan 2027virtual

Hamilton, 7 teaching sites

Program website(opens in a new tab)CaRMS program page(opens in a new tab)

What stands out about this program

  • Residents choose their own site and supervisor for every psychiatry rotation rather than being assigned.

    From “Program curriculum” on the CaRMS page

  • PGY1 core rotation with the medical team caring for patients admitted to psychiatry.

    From “Program curriculum” on the CaRMS page

  • PGY5 'Junior Attending' call shifts that simulate staff emergency psychiatrist practice.

    From “Program curriculum” on the CaRMS page

  • The McMaster Psychiatry residency is a 5-year program at the Hamilton campus, training in several hospitals across the city, including Hamilton Health Sciences and St. Joseph's Healthcare sites.
  • Residents complete an 8-week resident-designed selective with marginalized populations and choose the site and supervisor for their psychiatry rotations.
  • Call is at a single centralized site in downtown Hamilton, and a QI project is a minimum scholarly requirement.

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

What training looks like

Setting
  • Academic / tertiary hospital
Rural exposure
Not stated on CaRMS page
Focus areas
  • Underserved urban
Research
Required · scholarly or quality-improvement project · protected time

By year

PGY-1
  • Emergency Psychiatryfour-week block
  • selectiveone block
  • electiveone block
  • Internal Medicine
  • Family Medicine
  • Neurology
  • Adolescent Medicine
  • Emergency Medicine
  • Addictions
  • core rotation working with the medical team providing care to patients admitted to Psychiatry
PGY-2
  • General Adult Inpatient Psychiatry6 blocks
  • General Adult Outpatient Psychiatry6 blocks
  • Anchored Selective1 block
PGY-3
  • Child & Adolescent Psychiatry6 blocks
  • Geriatric Psychiatry6 blocks
  • Anchored Selective1 block
PGY-4
  • Chronic Care Psychiatry6 blocks
  • Elective, which may include research4 blocks
  • Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry3 blocks
PGY-5
  • electives10 blocks
  • Collaborative Care3 blocks

Other rotations

Listed by the program without a single PGY year.

  • Transition to Discipline (Transition to Discipline · 2 blocks)
PGY-1
  • Emergency Psychiatryfour-week block
  • selective (chosen from Geriatric Medicine, General Pediatrics, Developmental Pediatrics, Palliative Care, or Pediatric Neurology)one block
  • electiveone block
  • Internal Medicine
  • Family Medicine
  • Neurology
  • Adolescent Medicine
  • Emergency Medicine
  • Addictions
  • core rotation working with the medical team providing care to patients admitted to Psychiatry
PGY-2
  • General Adult Inpatient Psychiatry6 blocks
  • General Adult Outpatient Psychiatry6 blocks
  • Anchored Selective1 block
PGY-3
  • Child & Adolescent Psychiatry6 blocks
  • Geriatric Psychiatry6 blocks
  • Anchored Selective1 block
PGY-4
  • Chronic Care Psychiatry6 blocks
  • Elective, which may include research4 blocks
  • Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry3 blocks

Other rotations

Listed by the program without a single PGY year.

  • Transition to Discipline (Transition to Discipline · two blocks)
  • Collaborative Care (Transition to Practice · 3 blocks)
  • electives (Transition to Practice · 10 blocks)

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

Where you train

Hamilton, Ontario: 7 teaching sites.

  • Hamilton Health Sciences Corporation
  • St. Joseph's Healthcare
  • Halton Healthcare
  • McMaster Children's Hospital
  • West 5th Campus of St. Joseph's Healthcare
  • Homewood Health Centre (Guelph)
  • Grand River Hospital (Kitchener-Waterloo)

Record systems at the listed sites: Epic at 4 of 7, MEDITECH at 1, Oracle Health (Cerner) at 1; no published record for 1.

Hospital facts

6 sites · clinical record systems where an official source states them

What official sources say for hospitals named above, each with its source and the date we read it. They describe the hospital, not the program. We match names to the sources by name, so check each source before you rely on it.

Clinical record
Epic, fully electronic record since Jun 2022 As of 31 Oct 2026. At Hamilton Health Sciences Corporation, McMaster Children's Hospital.

St. Joseph's Healthcare

Clinical record
Epic, fully electronic record since Nov 2024 As of 31 Oct 2026

Halton Healthcare

Clinical record
MEDITECH Expanse, fully electronic record since Nov 2021 As of 31 Oct 2026

West 5th Campus of St. Joseph's Healthcare

Clinical record
Epic (Dovetale), fully electronic record since Dec 2017 As of 31 Oct 2026
Show facts for 1 more sites

Grand River Hospital

Clinical record
Cerner, system named (how far it goes is not stated) As of 31 Oct 2026

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

Hospital size and activity: Ontario doesn't publish this as open data.

About Hamilton

  • People

    569,353residents, 2021 Census

    Municipality of Hamilton

  • Housing

    3.5%rental vacancy rate

    October 2025 survey, Hamilton, Ontario (census metropolitan area)

  • Winter and summer

    −3.1 °CJanuary mean21.9 °CJuly mean

    1991–2020 normals, Burlington Piers, 5.0 km away

  • Job outlook

    Goodfor the specialty here, 2025–2027

More about Hamilton (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
  • Other file component(s)
Return of service
Not stated on CaRMS page. Check the provincial return-of-service rules.
Return of service
Required · IMGs only
IMG requirements
Not stated on CaRMS page

Application file components as each stream’s CaRMS page describes them.

Interviews and info sessions

Interview dates (2027 match)
25 and 28 Jan 2027; 1 Feb 2027
Interview dates (2027 match)
25 and 28 Jan 2027
Format
Virtual
  • Traditional (one on one/two on one)
  • Panel

Info sessions

From the program’s CaRMS page (opens in a new tab), read 20 Oct 2026; a row tagged CANPREPP is on CANPREPP’s events calendar (read 24 Oct 2026), alone or as well. Dates and times are as the program wrote them; “your time” is worked out in your browser when your time zone differs. Programs add and change sessions.

Pay and call

Provincial scale, last updated 6 Jan 2025 · check the current agreement(opens in a new tab). Contract expired, may change. One provincial scale for Ontario, set by the resident agreement, so every program there pays the same. Showing the 5 levels this program covers.

Annual salary by PGY level, Ontario
LevelAnnual salary
PGY-1
$73,367 / year
PGY-2
$79,670 / year
PGY-3
$85,564 / year
PGY-4
$92,701 / year
PGY-5
$98,567 / year

How provincial pay and rent compare

Call

Call (as the program states it)
In-house call · frequency “1/10 and 1/15-18”
Call (provincial max)
7 nights in 28 in-house
Post-call rule (provincial)
No new patient responsibilities after 24 hours in-hospital, except what clinical handover needs
Max continuous duty (provincial)
24 hours in-hospital, then relieved after handover (up to 2 hours)

The union agreement’s limits and rules for all residents in the province; your program’s actual call schedule may be lighter. PARO agreement, 1 Jul 2023 to 30 Jun 2026. The term has ended; its terms continue until a new agreement is signed. Read as of 1 Oct 2026.

Past matches

No repeated vacancies in CaRMS’s lists of open positions, 2019–2026.

Positions at this site, all streams.

What this means

  • A position can go unfilled because of where the site is, because it is open to IMGs only or to another restricted stream, or because the quota changed late.
  • It says nothing about the quality of the training or how heavy the workload is.
  • A site’s numbers are shown when it had positions open after round 1 in at least 2 of 8 years or at least 3 in one year.

Source: CaRMS’s lists of positions open after round 1 and after round 2, as read in October 2026 (latest: 2026 round 1 (CaRMS PDF, opens in a new tab), 2026 round 2 (CaRMS PDF, opens in a new tab)).

Year by year

2027 match

The 2027 match, one row per stream (scrolls sideways on narrow screens)
StreamPositionsLengthInterviewsWhat changed
CMG stream65 years3 dates, 25 Jan – 1 Feb 2027VirtualNothing noted
IMG stream25 years2 dates, 25–28 Jan 2027VirtualNothing noted

2026 match

The 2026 match, one row per stream (scrolls sideways on narrow screens)
StreamPositionsLengthInterviews
CMG stream65 years3 dates, 19–26 Jan 2026
IMG stream25 years2 dates, 19–22 Jan 2026
The 2026 page of the CMG stream: our summary of its CaRMS description
  • McMaster University's Psychiatry Residency Program offers a dynamic, flexible 5-year training experience in Hamilton, Ontario.
  • The program emphasizes comprehensive psychiatric training with a strong focus on evidence-based psychotherapies, scholarly inquiry, and care for marginalized populations.
Research
Extensive research opportunities with up to 10 blocks of research time in PGY5, possibility of graduate studies through Clinician Investigator Program, and annual research marketplace.
Training setting
Training occurs across multiple hospital settings in Hamilton, including Hamilton Health Sciences Corporation, St. Joseph's Healthcare, and community-based clinics, with virtual care options and access to Waterloo Regional Campus opportunities.
Teaching approach
A flexible, responsive training approach emphasizing self-directed learning, principles of adult learning, scholarly inquiry, and progressive skill development through Competency-Based Medical Education.
Enhanced skills
Not stated on CaRMS page
What the program looked at
  • Medical Student Performance Record
  • Reference letters
  • Personal letter
  • CV/Resume
  • Interview performance
  • Collaboration skills
  • Communication skills
  • Leadership potential
  • Research experience

Positions, length and interviews as each match’s CaRMS pages stated them; what changed from our comparison of the two matches and our readings of the 2027 pages.

Contacts and links

Program directors
Program office

Program Administrator

Write to the officemacarj7@mcmaster.ca

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

Program websiteWebsiteMcMaster Postgraduate Medical Education(opens in a new tab)Psychiatry & Behavourial Neurosciences(opens in a new tab)Faculty of Health Sciences(opens in a new tab)AFMC Match Resources(opens in a new tab)This program on CaRMS(opens in a new tab)

Videos and podcasts

From the program

Public podcast episodes and videos where the program presents itself. The short descriptions are ours; each link goes to the original.

These are public recordings, reviewed by hand and linked here, not endorsed. They may be out of date. Confirm with the program.

All videos, podcasts and discussions →

Psychiatry elsewhere

Nearest to Hamilton

  • Peel & Surrounding Communities - PsychiatryToronto Metropolitan University

    Peel & Surrounding Communities · 41 km

    12 positions · CMG, IMG

  • Waterloo - PsychiatryMcMaster University

    Waterloo · 57 km

    3 positions · CMG, IMG

  • Toronto - PsychiatryUniversity of Toronto

    Toronto · 59 km

    34 positions · CMG, IMG

In these collections:

Source

The CMG stream’s CaRMS page (opens in a new tab), last approved 28 Aug 2026 · The IMG stream’s CaRMS page (opens in a new tab), last approved 28 Aug 2026 · 2027 match · not final until file review opens 26 November; as of 19 Oct 2026, re-checked every two weeks.

Accredited · CaRMS program IDs 35585 (CMG stream), 36485 (IMG stream) · How these pages are made › · See the 2026 match under Year by year

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 24 Oct 2026.

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