How many hospitals?

[Guest lululime]

I think I was told this during interview day but how many hospitals are there in Halifax? Is clerkship only at these hospitals? Is a car needed to commute around in the city or is transit pretty good for getting groceries and shopping?

Thanks in advance!

[Guest JewelLeigh]

There are 4 major hospitals in Halifax: the children's hospital (IWK), the rehab hospital and the two general adult QEII hospitals (VG and HI). All 4 of these are within a 10 minute walk of each other and are right downtown, so a car is definitely not needed within the city.

 

In clerkship, the majority of rotations are done at these Halifax hospitals, but there are also a few rotations in:

- Dartmouth and other towns that are sorta "suburbs" of Halifax

- Other parts of NS

- PEI

- NB

On top of this, most people will be sent to a rural area for at least 3 weeks of their family rotation.

 

Thus, depending on what you want and what the luck of the draw has in store for you, there is a good chance that you will be outside of Halifax for a couple of rotations. In these cases, there is either public transit from downtown to the location (eg. Dartmouth) or there is a variety of accommodation available, which (from my impression so far) tends to be close to the hospital.

 

So - overall, I'd say that for 1st and 2nd years and for clerkship rotations within Halifax, you definitely don't need a car. For rotations outside of downtown Halifax, a car would sure be handy, but doesn't seem to be necessary.

 

That being said..I'm heading into clerkship in the fall, and it seems like a lot of my classmates are getting cars for 3rd year and I know I am sure glad to have one.

[Guest lululime]

Thanks JewelLeigh!