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 grew up around doctors so it is natural for me to call them by their first names. That being said, when I'm at work, they are Dr Whatever, especially in front of the patients. When I'm with other RNs we just call them by their last name. Most of our docs are from Pakistan and feel more comfortable with this arrangement. Outside work, first names are fine. Everyone calls the NPs and PAs by their first names all the time. Basically, until they tell you to be on a first name basis, give docs the dignity of using their title - you'll all get along better.
it really depends on the dr and the situation.i have worked teaching and nonteaching hospitals .i have called attendings by there full name dr so and so i have had attendings who insisted on being called by their 1st name .i don't have a problem calling them by there first name .but infront of the pt it is always dr so and so out of respect.however the drs always call me by my first name they have no clue what my last name is .its long and italian.but they show their respect of me in other ways.i work in a very relaxed er we call er attendings pa-c and np by 1st name .some of the other attendings by first name some by dr so and so .its a non teaching hospitals .residents were always 1st name .
I vary. If I don't know them very well I'll call them Dr._____. If they've introduced themselves with their first name I'll do that or once I get to know them. I will call them Dr_____ in front of the patients though.
I call all doctors by their first names, something that was engraved into me was a respect thing. If they call me Mr White, I call them Dr so and so, I've been that way since I was a young teen.
As far as them going through "so many years of school", well I was in college for 10 years, have 3 different degrees and a minor, and finally settled on nursing as a career and I don't assume people will call me Mr just because of that.
It is funny how habits can be hard to break, after a number of years in the Army Dr's are always called "Sir" or "Ma'am", (it also took me a while to stop calling RN's "Ma'am" or "Sir"). Most civilian Dr's I have worked with ask me to call them by their first name which I have no trouble with, however that old habit comes out whenever a patient or even fellow staff members are around. It has become a little bit of a running joke now but everyone is happy.....and I am slowly breaking the old habits!
Had a situation a few weeks ago with a new resident md. I didnt know her name so i called her by her first name as it appeared on her badge (from another facility, but I digress) - BAD IDEA!!! She has a god complex, hates men in general, and thinks she can disrespect anyone under the sun cause she is "Above all of you" (she did say that once). She asked for my name, I told it to her. Then she proceeded to make fun of me, my name and power play me - all over her name. Long story short - I said "Lets start over again. I am ______. What is your name?"
This is not the only incident I have had with this MD. Ever since this incident she has ignored me when I speak to her about a patients condition and threw a sharp pencil at me.
I know this is not Politically Correct, but after the pencil thowing incident I had had ENOUGH! I said "If you want to keep thinking you a man then lets take this outside - 2 hits - you throw the first one".
On our unit we mostly just call them Dr. with their first name...i.e. 'Dr. John' or 'Dr. Jane'...there's only a few we call by their last name and we call the NP's by first name.
I think it's kind of sad that the hospitals have largely lost any sense of professional etiquette. Everyone calls each other by their first name. We call the patients by their first name, regardless of their age or position. I have had retired Generals and former politicians, and some 19yo new-grad CNA comes in the room calling them "Bill" and "John".
Personally, I hate it when I start on a new ward or at a new hospital, and nurses immediately call me by my first name. It's inappropriate. I'm not your friend, and I'm not one of your regular coworkers. I'm a new person in what is supposed to be a professional environment, and the appropriate thing to do is call me "Dr. Tired" until I ask you to call me by my first name.
Similarly, I have no desire to call you by your first name. But of course, I don't really have a choice when that's the only thing on your name tag. I would like to call you "Mr. _____" or "Ms. _______", but since all you decided to put on your tag is "Mike" or "Brandi", you haven't left me much to work with. I have to resort to "ma'am" and "sir", which causes a lot of quizical looks. But since using the title "Nurse Mike" or "Nurse Brandi" is often taken as "talking down" I don't have any other options.
(And as a side-note, why is using "Nurse" as a title considered condescending? Isn't it a title that's supposed to be used with pride? It makes no sense to me.)
I get called by my first name in most places, and I call most nurses I work with by their first name. But I accept this situation mostly out of resignation. It's really not particularly polite or appropriate.
And when I'm a 75yo retired physician admitted to the hospital for my third heart attack, the first 25yo nurse or resident who calls me by my first name is going to get a serious butt-chewing.
Specializes in SICU, EMS, Home Health, School Nursing.
Where I work, we generally call all physician by "Dr. so and so", but I will call them by their first name or nick name if they ask me to. We do have several docs that have requested us call them by a first name, but like others have said, I will always call them by "Dr. so and so" in front of patients.
As for patients, if I know they have a special title such as Dr., etc I will call them by that when I first go in to greet them, but I will also ask them what they prefer us to call them.
I don't call physicians by their first name, and I don't want them to call me by my first name. However, most hospitals do issue name tags with only your first name.
I'm glad a physician finally weighed in on this. I'm not at all familiar with the situations TiredMD and some of the other respondents described, maybe because I only encounter older, attending physicians at my small community hospital. And in defense of nurses, I have to say that most of us call patients Mr.___ or Mrs.___ initially, until we get to know them or are instructed otherwise. Perhaps the younger, right out of school kids are more lax on this point, but that's another discussion. As for the doctors I talk to-almost entirely by phone since I work night shift- I too sort of accept out of resignation that they are called Dr.___ and I am called Molly or so-and-so's nurse. Such is the environment I work in, and I realize I'm not going to change it. I can't imagine a physician calling me ma'am like TiredMD would consider, but I suppose it could still happen someday...
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AZRN4life
15 Posts
I grew up around doctors so it is natural for me to call them by their first names. That being said, when I'm at work, they are Dr Whatever, especially in front of the patients. When I'm with other RNs we just call them by their last name. Most of our docs are from Pakistan and feel more comfortable with this arrangement. Outside work, first names are fine. Everyone calls the NPs and PAs by their first names all the time. Basically, until they tell you to be on a first name basis, give docs the dignity of using their title - you'll all get along better.