Postgraduate Practising Licence

Nova Scotia is the First Province to Permit Applicants for PGT Practising Licensure from all Canadian Jurisdictions

In consultation with stakeholders, such as the Dalhousie Faculty of Medicine, the College’s policy regarding Postgraduate Practising Licences for External Moonlighting now aligns with the Royal College’s CanMEDS competencies framework. The policy aims to ensure postgraduate trainees practice “within a scope for which they are appropriately trained, competent and current in practice.”

The new policy aligns with the training received by postgraduate trainees which focuses on competency by design as provided for in the CanMEDS competencies framework. This policy now allows postgraduate trainees from any province in Canada to apply for a Postgraduate External Moonlighting licence in Nova Scotia.

Postgraduate trainees play an important role in delivering medical care throughout Nova Scotia. If you are a postgraduate trainee wishing to provide moonlighting services in Nova Scotia, you must apply for licensure from the College.

There are 2 kinds of postgraduate practising licences, also called resident moonlighting licences:

External Moonlighting Licence

An External Moonlighting Licence allows a postgraduate trainee to provide staff coverage or “moonlight” at a facility or healthcare centre external to their primary site of training. This includes any postgraduate trainees currently enrolled in a postgraduate training program outside of Dalhousie University.

Eligibility & How to Apply

Please review the criteria in the College’s Postgraduate Practising Licence (External Moonlighting) policy to determine your eligibility to moonlight.

How to Apply

Step 1: You submit your completed application

Download and complete the Postgr aduate Practising Licence for External Moonlighting Application.
Send the completed application to registration@cpsns.ns.ca.

If you have questions about licensing, please contact College staff:
1-877-282-7767 or 902-422-5823
registration@cpsns.ns.ca

Step 2: We review your application

If you qualify, we will email you to request documents.
If you do NOT qualify, we will explain why.

It can take 4 to 6 weeks for you to collect and send all the documents needed.

Step 3: We notify you about your registration

If you qualify, we will send you instructions for outstanding documents and information to pay the applicable fees. Once we receive all required documents and payment, we aim to issue your licence within 10 business days.
If you do NOT qualify, we will explain why.

Step 4: You receive your licence to practise

If you are approved for a licence, we issue your licence to practise medicine in Nova Scotia for the dates that you will provide moonlighting coverage.

Internal Moonlighting Licence

An Internal Moonlighting licence allows postgraduate trainees to provide coverage for another trainee on the same or different service in the tertiary care teaching hospitals in Halifax. You are supervised the same way you are supervised during your postgraduate training.