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South West Nova - Family Medicine

Dalhousie UniversitySouth West Nova, Nova ScotiaIMG stream

Program websiteWebsite5 more links
Open on carms.ca(opens in a new tab)

CaRMS program description, 2026 match, last approved 17 Nov 2025

From the 2026 match (R-1 2026). See the 2027 version

Positions (approx. quota)
1 position
Length
2 years
Stream
IMG
Discipline
Family Medicine
Applications per year
601+
Applicants offered interviews
0–25%
Accreditation
Accredited
CaRMS program ID
30092

Bands are 5-year averages the program reports to CaRMS. They describe past cycles, not your odds.

Summary

The Dalhousie Family Medicine South West Nova (SWN) Program is a comprehensive two-year residency training program for self-directed learners passionate about rural family medicine. Located in southwestern Nova Scotia, the program offers residents an integrated longitudinal curriculum with extensive clinical experiences across diverse settings, emphasizing comprehensive family medicine practice.

Training

Research
Residents are required to complete a scholarly project with protected time, focusing on critically reviewing literature and potentially designing research studies in primary care.
Training setting
Rural and distributed training sites across southwestern Nova Scotia, primarily centered in Yarmouth Regional Hospital, with clinical experiences in diverse community settings including Yarmouth, Digby, and Shelburne counties.
Teaching approach
Competency-based medical education with a focus on progressive independence, longitudinal learning, and one-on-one mentorship, emphasizing evidence-based medicine and patient-centered care.
Setting types
  • Rural community hospital
  • Academic medical center
  • Primary care clinics
Focus areas
  • Rural Family Medicine
  • Comprehensive Clinical Care
  • Hospital Medicine
  • Emergency Medicine
  • Long-Term Care
  • Primary Maternity Care
  • Rural Healthcare
Patient populations
  • Rural community patients
  • Hospital inpatients
  • Emergency patients
  • Long-term care residents
  • Maternity patients
  • Diverse age groups
  • Complex medical needs populations
Highlights
  • Fully Integrated Longitudinal Clinical Curriculum
  • One-on-One Teaching
  • Core Simulation Curriculum
  • Comprehensive Orientation Program
  • Dedicated Simulation Facility
  • Community Navigator Support
  • Wellness Check-ins
  • Scholarly Project Requirements
  • Funded Advanced Certification Courses (ATLS, ALARM, ACLS, NRP)
Strengths
  • Comprehensive rural family medicine training
  • Strong one-on-one teaching model
  • Extensive clinical exposure
  • Supportive learning environment
  • Emphasis on community-based care
  • Flexible elective opportunities
Enhanced skills
  • Emergency Medicine
  • Palliative Care
  • Care of the Elderly

By year

PGY-1
  • Selective RotationsVarious sites4 weeks
  • Family Medicine Primary ClinicPrimary practice site2 days/week
PGY-2
  • Elective RotationsVarious sites8 weeks
  • Family Medicine Primary ClinicPrimary practice site3 days/week

From the program's rotation list.

Selection

What the program looks at
  • CV content
  • Electives
  • Examinations
  • Extra-curricular activities
  • Leadership skills
  • Medical Student Performance Record
  • Personal letter
  • Reference letters
  • Research involvement
  • Academic transcripts
Applications per year
601+
Applicants offered interviews
0–25%

Interviews

Dates (2026 match)
13 and 24 Nov 2025; 10 and 23 Jan 2026; 6 Feb 2026

Programs can change interview dates. Confirm on carms.ca.

Pay

Provincial scale, last updated 24 Jul 2026 · check the current agreement(opens in a new tab)

Annual salary by PGY level, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island
LevelAnnual salary
PGY-1
$78,578 / year
PGY-2
$83,904 / year

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 the 2 levels this program covers.

Benefits

Benefits as listed by CaRMS in 2022–2024; check the current agreement(opens in a new tab)

Annual vacation
4 weeks
Call stipend
Yes
CMPA dues paid
Yes
Dental coverage
Yes
Educational leave
Yes
Extended health insurance
Yes
Frequency of call
l in 4 in-hospital and for homecall
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

Call

Call (provincial max)
1 night in 4 in-house

The union agreement’s cap for all residents in the province; your program’s actual call schedule may be lighter. Check with the program.

MarDocs agreement, 1 Jul 2024 to 30 Jun 2027.

Teaching sites

  • Yarmouth Regional Hospital

Hospital facts

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

Yarmouth Regional Hospital

Matched to Yarmouth Regional Hospital (Yarmouth) in the province’s hospital list.

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

Sources and licences

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

Unfilled positions in past years

Open after round 1 in 5 of 8 years (2019–2026); still open after round 2 in 2 of 9 years.

Positions at this site, all streams. Site as CaRMS lists it: South West Nova.

Positions at this site, all streams, still open after round 1 and after round 2, by year. Each count above zero links to the CaRMS list page it comes from.
YearOpen after round 1Open after round 2
2018not available0
20192 positions open after round 1 in 2019, CaRMS list (opens in a new tab)0
202000
20211 position open after round 1 in 2021, CaRMS list (opens in a new tab)0
202200
202300
20241 position open after round 1 in 2024, CaRMS list (opens in a new tab)0
20253 positions open after round 1 in 2025, CaRMS list (opens in a new tab)1 position open after round 2 in 2025, CaRMS list (opens in a new tab)
20261 position open after round 1 in 2026, CaRMS list (opens in a new tab)1 position open after round 2 in 2026, CaRMS list (opens in a new tab)

CaRMS’s first-round list for 2018 was not found, so round 1 is counted over 8 years and round 2 over 9.

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. Verify with the CaRMS lists. 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)). 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.

Contacts

Location

South West Nova, Nova Scotia

Loading amenities…

About the city

Public statistics for the place named by this program’s location label, each with its source and reference period. They describe the place, not the program, and are not a ranking. Check each source before you rely on it.

Climate

Canadian Climate Normals, 1991–2020. Each value comes from the nearest weather station that reports it, not from the city itself.

January average
−2.6 °C Yarmouth, 1.9 km away
July average
17.3 °C Yarmouth, 1.9 km away
Snowfall
204.7 cm a year Yarmouth, 1.9 km away
Days below −20 °C
0.1 days a year Yarmouth, 1.9 km away

People

2021 Census. Figures are for the municipality of Yarmouth, not the metropolitan area. Statistics Canada rounds counts, so small places are approximate.

Population
6,829 people up 4.8% from 2016
Official languages
English only 84.4% · French only not reported · English and French 15.3% · neither 0.3% Share of residents who can conduct a conversation in each. This is not the language spoken at home.
Immigrants
3.9% of residents arrived 2016–2021: 1.0% · non-permanent residents: 2.0%
Indigenous identity
14.3% of residents
How people commute
car, truck or van 85.3% · public transit 0.6% · walking or cycling 11.9% · other 2.2% Average commute: 13.2 minutes. Shares are of people who commute.The way Canadians commute was altered in 2021 by the pandemic, with lockdowns to slow the spread of COVID-19 and changes in how and where Canadians worked leading to 2.8 million fewer commuters, compared with five years earlier. Statistics Canada, The Daily, 30 Nov 2022(opens in a new tab)
Median household income
$48,000 before tax $44,400 after tax · income year 2020, in 2020 dollars

Rural and remote

This describes the place named by the program’s location label. Programs can train in several towns, so it is not every site.

Population centre
Yarmouth, a small population centre (1,000 to 29,999 people) 7,848 people in 2021
Remoteness index
0.421 0 is least remote, 1 is most remote. Statistics Canada calls this index experimental.
Student loan forgiveness
Family medicine here may qualify for up to $60,000 of Canada Student Loan forgiveness. Eligibility depends on the postal code of where you work: check the official postal-code lookup. Postal-code lookup(opens in a new tab)

Housing, cost and work

Each figure names the area it covers. A missing line means the source publishes nothing for this area.

Basic cost of living
$51,917 a year Market Basket Measure 2025, Nova Scotia, population under 30,000, for two adults with two children. A modest, basic basket (the poverty line), not a resident’s budget. A size-class region is not the town itself.

Job outlook

Employment and Social Development Canada’s rating for the occupation in the economic region. It is not a count of jobs, and says nothing about CaRMS positions or your match.

Outlook, 2025–2027
Very good The employment outlook will be Very good for general practitioners and family physicians (NOC 31102) in the Southern region for the 2025-2027 period.
Canada-wide, to 2033
Strong risk of Shortage ESDC’s projection for general practitioners and family physicians, 2024–2033. Recent conditions, 2021–2023: Strong signs of Shortage.

Sources and licences

  • Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence - Canada. Adapted from Statistics Canada, 2021 Census Cartographic Boundary Files.
  • Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence - Canada (Employment and Social Development Canada, Canadian Occupational Projection System (COPS), 2024 to 2033 projections).
  • Data Source: Environment and Climate Change Canada (Canadian Climate Normals 1991-2020).
  • Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence - Canada (Employment and Social Development Canada, 3-Year Employment Outlooks).
  • Adapted from Statistics Canada, Index of Remoteness (17-26-0001), 2021. This does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada of this product.
  • Source: Employment and Social Development Canada, Canada Student Loan Forgiveness (Canada.ca), page dated 2026-06-03.
  • Adapted from Statistics Canada, Table 11-10-0066-01 Market Basket Measure (MBM) thresholds for the reference family by Market Basket Measure region, component and base year, 2025. This does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada of this product.
  • Adapted from Statistics Canada, Table 98-10-0011-01 Population and dwelling counts: Canada and population centres, 2021 Census. This does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada of this product.
  • Adapted from Statistics Canada, Table 98-10-0002-01 Population and dwelling counts: Canada and census subdivisions (municipalities), 2021 Census. This does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada of this product.
  • Adapted from Statistics Canada, Table 98-10-0057-01 Household income statistics by household type: Canada, provinces and territories, census divisions and census subdivisions, 2021 Census. This does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada of this product.
  • Adapted from Statistics Canada, Table 98-10-0173-01 Mother tongue by knowledge of official languages: Canada, provinces and territories, census divisions and census subdivisions, 2021 Census. This does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada of this product.
  • Adapted from Statistics Canada, Table 98-10-0266-01 Indigenous identity by Registered or Treaty Indian status: Canada, provinces and territories, census divisions and census subdivisions, 2021 Census. This does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada of this product.
  • Adapted from Statistics Canada, Table 98-10-0307-01 Immigrant status and period of immigration by place of birth: Canada, provinces and territories, census divisions and census subdivisions, 2021 Census. This does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada of this product.
  • Adapted from Statistics Canada, Table 98-10-0458-01 Main mode of commuting by commuting duration, time leaving for work, age and gender: Canada, provinces and territories, census divisions and census subdivisions, 2021 Census. This does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada of this product.

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 5 Oct 2026.