@garland sorry for miscommunicating. Not my area of expertise as I need to worry about my own certifications. You are correct, it is 3 years to be board certified. You can practice without the board certification. For the physician I work with, he was able to do a 2 year residency by doing his residency in an underserved area. The residents are certainly “practicing” at this time. I just mentioned the doctor title as it was the theme of the discussion.