Today@Dal

Join the Volunteer Patient Program

To get really good at what they do, medical students need to practise their interviewing and examination skills on real people. The Volunteer Patient Program (VPP) gives first-year students the opportunity to rehearse these skills.

Volunteer patient recruitment

Within each unit of the curriculum, students learn how to take the appropriate medical history and how to conduct the relevant physical exam(s). Because of that, we aim to recruit volunteers who have a variety of health conditions (e.g., diabetes, high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, bowel disease, osteoporosis, epilepsy, thyroid conditions, asthma, etc.).

If you're signing on as a spare volunteer, you can have a health condition, or be 100 per cent healthy.

What to expect

A pair of first-year medical students will practise taking your medical history and perform a non-invasive medical exam under the direction of their tutor, a fully-licensed physician. (Note: Student teams do not provide medical care or advice.)

Scheduling

VPP sessions take place on Tuesday and Thursday mornings (9:15 a.m. - 11:45 a.m.), and run throughout the academic year. Volunteer patients can participate once or more than once - whatever schedules allow.

Sign up

Halifax VPP coordinator: vppinfo@dal.ca
Saint John VPP coordinator: stephanie.rutherford@dal.ca, 506-636-6264​