Nova Scotia Health Welcomes New Medical Residents

The Canadian Resident Matching Service (CaRMS) is a rite of passage for medical students, matching students into postgraduate medical training programs across Canada. Regan Barry and Laura Pickett are two Canadian students studying abroad who are now returning home to the Maritimes, thanks to successful matches in family medicine through Dalhousie University.  

Regan Barry 

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Regan Barry opened her CaRMS email over FaceTime with her family in Fredericton, New Brunswick. A click of a mouse uncovered the news she’d been hoping for – a match to family medicine in Sydney, Cape Breton.  

“I was absolutely thrilled!,” says the medical learner, who spent many childhood summers in Cape Breton on the Georges River. “We were all crying by the end; it was just such a surreal moment. I have it recorded and I've watched it a few times already,” she says.

Regan’s interest in medicine began during childhood and her experiences as a patient at the IWK Health Centre. “The care I had there throughout my childhood is a large part of what inspired me to do medicine. The team there was incredible: kind, patient, caring and so much more,” she says.  

She started looking into direct entry programs in high school, which is how she ended up at University College Dublin.

Over her six-year program, she’s done placements at more than 20 different hospitals, in specialties ranging from gynecology to vascular surgery. But, at the end of the day, her heart is in family medicine.  

“You never know what you're going to see in a day and I love that about it,” she says, referencing the wide scope of care family physicians provide. “I also really appreciate that you're able to see patients over an extended period of time and build lasting relationships with them,” says the 23-year-old, who is also considering doing a plus-one in enhanced surgical skills.

Regan’s loved her time in Ireland – making friends, soaking in Irish culture and connecting with her familial roots – but says she’s ready to come home and is excited for the strong family medicine residency program Dalhousie offers.

“My parents are still in Fredericton but one province is a lot less than an ocean and that'll be really nice [to be closer]. Professionally, I'm really excited to get started putting all of this knowledge into practice.” 

Laura Pickett 

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“It's kind of surreal that I'm going home and that I get to go to one of my favourite places,” Laura Pickett says of her CaRMS match to family medicine in the Annapolis Valley.

This spring, the Bedford native will graduate with her doctor of medicine from University College Cork, Ireland, recognizing her lifelong dream of being a physician. Laura’s connection to healthcare started well before her medical studies, including a position at Nova Scotia Health as a patient attendant and ward aide at the Halifax Infirmary site of the QEII.  

“Technically I’m still employed there,” she says with a laugh.

Her interest in family medicine stems from her own family, specifically her dad and her grandfather.

Laura’s father is a family physician and with an emergency medicine certification. Growing up, she heard stories of the people he’d helped and relationships he built – it was something she wanted to be a part of.  

But it was her family’s experience dealing with her grandfather’s Alzheimer’s disease that put family medicine into focus.  

“My grandfather was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease when I was a teenager…I learned how the family physician is not just a doctor for the patient but, rather, for your whole family,” she says, highlighting the importance of community.  

Laura achieved her undergraduate degree at Acadia University in Wolfville and is excited about pursuing rural family medicine – an interest bolstered by positive experiences she had during rotations, such as one at Colchester East Hants Centre in Truro.

“One of the doctors – I’m going to shout him out, Dr. [Sarbjit] Singh – is amazing and really showed me the whole picture of what it was to be a family doctor. We would be up in palliative care and, next thing you know, we’d be in the emergency department and then in the clinic. And I thought to myself , ‘You know what? I want to do this for the rest of my life.’”

Laura and Regan are excited to join the Nova Scotia Health team as family medicine residents on July 1.