Do you work with any that ask you to do this? Does it weird you out at all?
I'm a pretty laid back person...like sometimes "check-a-pulse" laidback. :wink2: I'm also pretty self confident and I'm not scared of doctors. But I guess I had it ingrained into my head at some impressionable stage in my life that they're addressed as "Dr So and So". I didn't realize how deeply this penetrated my fragile psyche until a few years ago when my Sis started dating a vet. I called him Dr H, even when we were all out in a social setting and taught my Kiddo to do the same. (I quit when I found out he was a Red Wings fan...came up with a different name that I won't post here! LOL! But I made the Kiddo continue to call him Doc for the longest time. It eventually evolved into Uncle Dr H. )
Anyway, so now I'm working in an ER, and even though I'm a probie RN, I've worked there for over a year. We have a bunch of great docs...talented, respectful, the whole shibang. I'm very lucky and I know it. Some of our doctors have started asking us to call them by their first names, and I kinda feel uncomfortable doing it. I mean, they went to school for a loooong time to earn that title. At first, I just thought that it was because they were younger docs and less formal...but then I realized they weren't that young, I was just older. I don't think it's a big formailty thing, and it's not like I'm adressing them as my superior. It's just a title for an impressive feat that they accomplished, and I think they earned it, and my respect.
I do it, or at least try to remember. I refuse to do it in front of patients though. Gets my lots of eye rolls, but hey...I have my standards. Not many, but the ones I do have, I stick to. But it just feels weird. So I was wondering if this was common in other areas, or if my docs are even more laid back than I am? :chuckle
I am a nurse apprentice and I call most of our doctors by their first name -- I honestly don't know their last name -- most of them are residents/fellows. The attendings I refer to as Dr. X.. probably because I don't know their first names. If a doctor wants to be called Dr. X, then I have no problem abiding by that.
Kind of funny -- during a clinical last semester, I was caring for an ER physician who was their to have his colostomy reversed and repaired -- I had never heard that you should still call doctors by their last name when they are patients. I called him by his first name and the nurse I was working with was shocked. The patient didn't care that I called him by his first name, but I was kind of taken back by the nurses reaction.
When I first meet them... its "Dr. Smith"......... if they say call me "Michael"......then its Michael......... but on out of ear shot of the patient.
I have had interns and residents that were on call... I had to page them for something... they would call back and say "This is John"....... they would give me an order......and say will you put the order in for me?" Sure will, soon as you tell me your last name......... this IS a teaching facility... do you know how many "John's" there are?
The attendings are usually called Dr. Smith........ but there are even a few of them that will ask you to call them by first name.
come to think of it I always call my college instructors "Professor" even when I think they probably don't have the credentials in email (all classes are online). Then when/if they write me and sign with their first name I will call them that going forward.
If I'm interrupting, its always Mr./Professor/etc...if its casual then its John or Jane.
I've wondered about this since I started working on a Med-Surg floor two months ago. It's not that I mind using the Dr title, but I guess it's the expectation that nurses will do so, while being called by our first name (or just nurse) in return. To me, that seems like we're being deferential to them, and I think it contributes to the power trips that some of them have. I respect the MD education, but we're all mature adults, so it still strikes me as a little odd. Using someone's first name is not meant to convey any disrespect whatsoever, at least not when I do it. Any other thoughts on this?
Specializes in med/surg/tele/neuro/rehab/corrections.
I was recently called out in front of everyone for calling a doctor by his first name over the intercom when a phone call came in for him. The person on the phone, a doctor sew and sew, asked for him by first name which didn't help me because I didn't know the docs last name. I looked over in the doctor's "office cube" and no one was there so I couldn't just yell out "Doctor sew and sew -- line one" as we usually do- we announce the doctor who is calling and our doc just picks up the line. Not knowing his last name, (and it's foreign so I REALLY didn't know it) I had to page out his first name as was told to me by the doc on the phone. Boy was he mad. Came to the desk and really told me off. Well if his name had been Bill Smith I would have been happy to page out Dr Smith. I asked the person training me what his last name was and I learned it. Everyone else calls him by his first name so no wonder I didn't know it. Plus I learned that his first name is almost the same as his last name, just a slight variation in pronouncing where you put the emphasis.
It wouldn't have been so bad really and I understand he worked hard for his title but I was already having a bad day.
I had no idea that there were doctors out there that actually want to be called by their first name.
We call all the residents and fellows by their first names. Half the time, we don't even know the residents last names until we have to ask them when writing notes or something. We call most of the attendings "Dr. Lastname." I always use last names in front of patients (parents) unless I don't know it. Then I just say the doctor.
I work in NICU where the docs are on the unit at all times. Even an attending is in house 24/7, although I'm not quite sure where at night. I think the nurses and docs get along pretty well, and I think that being on first-name basis with them helps alot. I like to think that they (most of them) respect our opinions about the patients, since we spend 12 hours at their bedside.
Yep, the residents and fellows I call by their first name and there has never been a problem. The Attending however is a different story and they always get the title of Dr. When I first started working as a RN I used to call the residents Dr. however the vibe of my unit is to go for the first name. They're always on the floor and it just seems to be natural to call them by their first name, they're a part of us!
Of course when speaking with the family it's either the specific MD or the "team of MD's" which always leads to a confused state. :chuckle
Specializes in Medsurg/ICU, Mental Health, Home Health.
the family medicine and surgical residents at my last facility wanted us to call them by their first names. a first year general surgery resident that i'd developed a rapport with actually asked me to stop calling him dr. ______. it took me a while before i did it, though. another first year general surgery resident and i bonded during a very long night that left him attached to my nursing station, and i did start calling him by his first name. with those two, though, it was different...they knew me by name without having to look at my badge, even though they interacted with several nurses in many different departments every day.
Do you work with any that ask you to do this? Does it weird you out at all?
Yes, I do. Our neonatologists go by their first names. Our unit's pretty laid back in general, though. They all wear jeans in the unit, eat lunch with us (in fact, one was delivery-boy today), and joke/send stupid e-mails. But...they're in-house with us 24/7, so it's not like they only make rounds or whatever MD's do in other units. I've never felt even an inkling of disrespect from any of them, even as a brand new RN. I got a "glad to have you!" from every single one of them. In return, I run interference for them with the pushier of the reps...lol.
It *totally* weirded me out at first. It's like calling my dad's friends by their first names. But in a unit where non-patients routinely run around in their pajamas, it's seems like it fits.
I usually will address them by first name if they ask me to.However, in front of Pt's I usually go with Dr. So & So.
It was hard to do this at first, cause it's simply not how I learned things.
You can see by my age that I'm pretty old, & we always learned the very formal. We even stood up when an MD entered the room----they were practically treated like gods!!LOL!!
hahaha...your post brought a smile to my face reminding me of a nurse I met who worked in the 60's & 70's and she would tell us how the nurses would stand if the docs walked in the room and get up and given them their chairs....hahaha.... Now some of the nurses I work with tell them off regularly whether they need it or not :wink2:
Specializes in UR/PA, Hematology/Oncology, Med Surg, Psych.
My basic rule is: at work I call them Dr. so and so, unless asked to do otherwise or the culture is such that everyone calls them by their first name. Outside of work if I run into a Dr. for whatever reason; I see them in the store, at social events; I use their first name.
At work I believe the title of Dr. was earned and should be respected unless directed otherwise (and always in front of patients,) but socially I consider us peers.
) 
Came to the desk and really told me off. Well if his name had been Bill Smith I would have been happy to page out Dr Smith. I asked the person training me what his last name was and I learned it. Everyone else calls him by his first name so no wonder I didn't know it. Plus I learned that his first name is almost the same as his last name, just a slight variation in pronouncing where you put the emphasis.
:wink2:
MikeyJ, RN
1,124 Posts
I am a nurse apprentice and I call most of our doctors by their first name -- I honestly don't know their last name -- most of them are residents/fellows. The attendings I refer to as Dr. X.. probably because I don't know their first names. If a doctor wants to be called Dr. X, then I have no problem abiding by that.
Kind of funny -- during a clinical last semester, I was caring for an ER physician who was their to have his colostomy reversed and repaired -- I had never heard that you should still call doctors by their last name when they are patients. I called him by his first name and the nurse I was working with was shocked. The patient didn't care that I called him by his first name, but I was kind of taken back by the nurses reaction.