any good recommended journals for critical care?? I'm pretty interested in this part of medicine and have been looking on my own, but wanted to know if there was a 'consensus' nice journal. Also, any good annual conferences that one shouldnt' miss?

Hmmm.. I guess the usual suspects. Here's a few that I like to frequent. Any others?

Critical Care Medicine

NEJM

JAMA

Chest

Critical Care / Critical Care Forum

Pediatric Critical Care Medicine

*note: most of the anesthesiology journals have sections devoted to critical care topics, other journals by their very nature are critical care in content (e.g. Journal of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Anesthesia)

Anaesthesia (UK spelling)

British Journal of Anaesthesia

Anesthesiology

ASA Refresher Courses in Anesthesiology
(great for the basics such as ventilation strategies, transfusion, selective hypothermia, etc)

Anesthesia and Analgesia

Canadian Journal of Anesthesia

Journal of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Anesthesia

Journal of Trauma, Injury, Infection, and Critical Care

The ATS puts out the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care. It is considered the best as far as rigor of peer review, best studies. A lot of basic science, though. I get it cause you can be a resident member of the ATS.

College of Chest physicians puts out CHEST which is a little more clinically based. have to be a fellow or attending to get this one.

I'm sure that there are more surgical or anesthesia based journals but these are the biggies for general critical care.

The ATS puts out the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care. It is considered the best as far as rigor of peer review, best studies. A lot of basic science, though. I get it cause you can be a resident member of the ATS.

College of Chest physicians puts out CHEST which is a little more clinically based. have to be a fellow or attending to get this one.

I'm sure that there are more surgical or anesthesia based journals but these are the biggies for general critical care.

Cool thanks guys thats what I was looking for!

The ATS puts out the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care. It is considered the best as far as rigor of peer review, best studies. A lot of basic science, though. I get it cause you can be a resident member of the ATS.

College of Chest physicians puts out CHEST which is a little more clinically based. have to be a fellow or attending to get this one.

I'm sure that there are more surgical or anesthesia based journals but these are the biggies for general critical care.

Yes, AJRCCM, (nick-named the Blue Journal because the cover is blue), is probably the most rigorous journal out there at least for pulm/cc. CHEST, while often interesting to read, is considered to be a very "light" journal, usually lacking in good data and well-designed studies. But the articles in there are often much easier to understand.

How does Critical Care Medicine stack up in people's opinions? From what I understand it's more clinically focused than The Blue Journal has been in the last few years, though not always as high in quality. Perhaps more rigorous than Chest?

I've heard rumors of AJRCCM making a push to focus more on critical care and less on respiratory, and more on clinical research and less on basic science.