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Doctor is no longer a protected term - Physician = MD/DO


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This never bothered me.  We have doctorates in many subjects who have put in the time to earn that term, Doctor.  I have no problem them referreing to themselves as Dr. so and so nurse practitioner.  Physician is another story.  I know I will be in the minority here though.

Edited by Cideous
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8 minutes ago, Cideous said:

This never bothered me.  We have doctorates in many subjects who have put in the time to earn that term, Doctor.  I have no problem them referreing to themselves as Dr. so and so nurse practitioner.  Physician is another story.  I know I will be in the minority here though.

I have, in the past, said that Doctor and Physicain should be reserved for MD/DO - and a select few others..... well no more - if you have earned a degree a the doctoral level you can call yourself doctor.... period

8 minutes ago, ANESMCR said:

I can’t take that serious no matter how hard I try. That being said, I wonder what it’s like to be an NP treating a PA as a patient, referring oneself as a “doctor” whilst knowing your patient is more qualified with an even more misleading title. 

yeah, I need to find out how experienced she is.  I have no issues with seeing a great MD./DO.NP/PA but a new grad who did 600 hours of clinical and an online course is not going to be my PCP 

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53 minutes ago, ANESMCR said:

I can’t take that serious no matter how hard I try. That being said, I wonder what it’s like to be an NP treating a PA as a patient, referring oneself as a “doctor” whilst knowing your patient is more qualified with an even more misleading title. 

I'm not sure I agree with this. I won't call her Doctor, but if she wants it on her stationary then I could care less.

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8 minutes ago, Cideous said:

This never bothered me.  We have doctorates in many subjects who have put in the time to earn that term, Doctor.  I have no problem them referreing to themselves as Dr. so and so nurse practitioner.  Physician is another story.  I know I will be in the minority here though.

It doesn't bother me as well. NP has a doctorate degree, so they can be called Dr. John Doe DNP.  The days are coming folks. We do not want to get left behind. 

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15 minutes ago, thinkertdm said:

My predecessor at the va strolled around and made her fellow pact members call her “dr”. She was universally hated by both the staff and the patients, mostly because her skills were not “dr”.

I get called "Doctor" all the time, even by people I've seen for years and explained this to repeatedly. If I get a response, it's usually along the lines of "I don't care if you're a PA and not a doctor, you're MY doctor."

I can't win.

But then..."Let someone else praise you, and not your own mouth; an outsider, and not your own lips." Prov 27:2.

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3 hours ago, Cideous said:

I'm not sure I agree with this. I won't call her Doctor, but if she wants it on her stationary then I could care less.

Safe to say nobody is stopping them from calling themselves Dr. nurses. Seems we are agreeable on actually referring to them as doctors. We do disagree on one thing. I don’t think they’ve put in the time to be called doctors clinically, non-clinically, or academically. 

 

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I get called "Doctor" all the time, even by people I've seen for years and explained this to repeatedly. If I get a response, it's usually along the lines of "I don't care if you're a PA and not a doctor, you're MY doctor."
I can't win.
But then..."Let someone else praise you, and not your own mouth; an outsider, and not your own lips." Prov 27:2.
Amen [emoji1373]

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

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11 hours ago, rev ronin said:

I get called "Doctor" all the time, even by people I've seen for years and explained this to repeatedly. If I get a response, it's usually along the lines of "I don't care if you're a PA and not a doctor, you're MY doctor."

I can't win.

But then..."Let someone else praise you, and not your own mouth; an outsider, and not your own lips." Prov 27:2.

Yup.  I get called “doc” all the time, as these guys call the people who patch them back up “doc”.  Corpsman, medic, doc...all get “doc”.  Better than “bones” I guess.  It does get me bit when I’m called “that PA” in their correspondence, because I do have a name.  But meh, don’t lose sleep about it.  

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MD/DOs are just physicians in my mind.  Their education is on par with an undergraduate curriculum studied around the world for physicians... ala MB/BS.  Times have changed, but once upon a time the only "Doctor" in my mind was the person who earned a PhD.  That's true academic prowess (in the traditional sense of course) and as such I always thought they were the true "Doctors." With degree creep, I don't think the title is worth much anymore, and professional organizations are only serving their own best interests saying "this one can use the title "Doctor" and this one can't.  Frankly, the title Doctor is an academic nomenclature, and if someone has earned it, well... 

G

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19 minutes ago, kargiver said:

MD/DOs are just physicians in my mind.  Their education is on par with an undergraduate curriculum studied around the world for physicians... ala MB/BS.  Times have changed, but once upon a time the only "Doctor" in my mind was the person who earned a PhD.  That's true academic prowess (in the traditional sense of course) and as such I always thought they were the true "Doctors." With degree creep, I don't think the title is worth much anymore, and professional organizations are only serving their own best interests saying "this one can use the title "Doctor" and this one can't.  Frankly, the title Doctor is an academic nomenclature, and if someone has earned it, well... 

G

Agree.

Dr Emedpa

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12 hours ago, SERENITY NOW said:

I have been told by NP colleagues that the courses added to get NPs to DNPs are academic courses, research based, etc.  They are not clinical courses to get a doctorate level clinical education, which would be that of MDs/DOs.  They can call themselves doctors in an academic environment all they want, but don't think they should be allowed to call themselves doctors in a clinical setting to patients.   

can't disagree but the horse have left the stable, the cat is out of the bag and so on....

 

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It's not just the doctor title that is getting watered down.

I have an undergrad engineering degree in electrical engineering.  Back in those days, the term "engineer" was strictly used to define a graduate of an engineering degree program.

No more.

Now there are people doing fashion design at trade colleges that are calling themselves "fashion engineers."  Business graduates are now calling themselves "financial engineers."   Computer science majors are now "software engineers" instead of computer programmers.

 

 

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