gaspazzer

No. MDA is only a 4 year residency 91 year Intern and 3 years anesthesia). You are not required to do a fellowship.

Why would you want to spend your time reading a magazine. Your patient deserves your total attention. You may miss suttle signs such as the developement of ST segment changes, increases in airway pressure etc. The next thing you'll probably want to do is turn all the volumes down and maybe even the alarms so that they wont disturb you reading. If you want to spend your time reading become a librarian or something so that your in attentiveness will not kill someone. This is the sort of thing that give us a bad name. If you were a student of mine you would have got a failing grade for this clinical.:redlight:

Enjoy the boardom. It usually means that you are doing a good job. Just remember to be vigilant at all times orherwise something will jump up and bite you:gandalf:

Ted, Stick with it. I had a friend who had to take the boards five times before he passed. He had other problems going on at the time though. Study the sweat books, espically Howards, and remember that you WILL pass.