Medicine

Why study Medicine at Dal?

You'll get hands-on in first year and gain interprofessional experience

With campuses in Halifax, N.S. and Saint John, N.B., and teaching sites across Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island, Dalhousie Medical School provides the highest caliber medical education to aspiring doctors and medical researchers in the Maritime region.

Our curriculum balances classroom work with clinical and elective opportunities in rural clinics and in large, tertiary-care hospitals to help you become a caring, resourceful physician who is able to work with patients, families, and colleagues to provide excellent care in many different contexts and in complex and uncertain situations. As well, you'll be encouraged to be an agent of creative change in health-care institutions and in communities, and provide outstanding patient-centred care.

Our four-year program is accredited by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) in cooperation with the Committee on Accreditation of Canadian Medical Schools (CACMS).

Degree overview

Professional Degree: Doctor of Medicine, MD
Faculty: Faculty of Medicine
Department: Undergraduate Medical Education
Campus: Carleton Campus, Halifax
Program Length: 4 years
Program Start: August

What will I learn?

You'll have many opportunities to get real-life hospital experience early on, through the clinical skills components or by choosing an elective that offers additional hands-on learning.

The program is divided into three key sections, Med 1 and Med 2, followed by Clerkship. The first two years, Med 1 and Med 2, give you a basic foundation in medicine, including the anatomy and systems of the human body, while considering other important aspects of health care, from the philosophical and ethical to the practical.

Clerkship, consisting of two phases completed over two academic years (Med 3 and Med 4), gives you even more opportunity to apply your learning in a range of situations and fields. Four periods of teaching time (each 2 to 4 weeks in length) will be developed to help students transition from Med 2 to Med 3, and through the clerkship from Med 3 to Med 4, and subsequently, from Med 4 into residency. These sessions will incorporate Introduction to Clerkship and Critical Review and Mastery (CRAM).

Classes in our medical program do not have the typical academic structure; rather, you will take a variety of theme- and case-based units that focus on a particular area of medical training.

Sample courses:

Human Development
Internal Medicine
Surgery

The Research in Medicine (RIM) Program is designed for all medical students and is meant to develop skills of critical thinking and creativity through a mentored research project conducted longitudinally throughout the four year curriculum. During the first term of Med 1, courses will expose all students to essential research skills. Completion of this program, including presentation of research findings, will take place in the spring of the fourth year and is a requirement for graduation.

Visit the Academic Calendar to view degree options and course details.

Careers and future study

Dalhousie Medical School has post-graduate (resident) training in family medicine and more than 45 Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons specialty and subspecialty programs. But don't worry, you'll have access to career-planning programs and services to help make important career decisions easier. You might choose to specialize in:

anesthesia
emergency medicine
family medicine
pathology
surgery

After completing your residency training, there are plenty of opportunities for continuing professional development and graduate studies through Dalhousie Medical School including a medical research program designed to build a career as a clinician scientist.