Do you call your teachers by their 1st names?

JROregon, ASN, BSN, RN · Sep 21, 2010

I call every instructor by first name because I'm old. I might have to reconsider if they have a PhD or MD after their name : ) Usually people want to be called by their first names unless there is a significant age difference or it is more culturally acceptable to use a title.

anonymousstudent · Sep 21, 2010

First names here too.

I think it depends on the kind of relationship needed to educate nurses. Some courses I can see using Prof. XYZ, like mostly lecture based course such as Pharm. (Though even there we use his first name.) Nursing instructors and students are required to have a much closer relationship than most typical teacher-student relationships.

Some people are very chain of command oriented and have trouble with that. Perhaps that's her past experience?

CuriousMe · Sep 21, 2010

I use their first name, after being invited to do so. Before then, it's Dr. So&So. (the overwhelming majority of my Prof's have their PhD).

dudette10, MSN, RN · Sep 21, 2010

I call every instructor by first name because I'm old. I might have to reconsider if they have a PhD or MD after their name : ) Usually people want to be called by their first names unless there is a significant age difference or it is more culturally acceptable to use a title.

I'm older than a few of my professors, and to me, age has nothing to do with it. It's a matter of respecting their knowledge base and promoting a comfortable professional distance. They are not my friends and they are ceertainly not my peers; they are my teachers.

So, even the one who is seven years younger than I am gets a "Professor" before her last name.

If anyone calls a professor by his or her first name, I hope you got permission first or they said, "Call me firstname." :)

rn/writer, RN · Sep 21, 2010

If the instructor doesn't make it clear by the end of the first class, someone should ask, "What would you like us to call you?"

Some people are very comfortable with first names; others are not. And it may have more to do with their own preferences than their education level or age.

snazzy-jazzy, BSN, RN · Sep 21, 2010

Yes I and everyone else in the classes have used first names. Which is how they introduced themselves.

Saysfaa · Sep 21, 2010

One told stories involving students calling him Dr. Hisname. All the others specifically asked the students to use their first names. They did this on the first day of class as part of the intro to the class.

I call people what they wish to be called.

0402 · Sep 21, 2010

We were told that all professors/ instructors will be addressing using Dr/ Prof/ etc unless they tell us otherwise. Almost all of our classroom instructors had a PhD or DNP, so that was easy. In clinical, we were told that we had to address them formally on the floor, but that if we were out of the hospital, we did not have to do that (if the instructor said it was ok to use their first name outside of the hospital). Once our course was over with someone, we often switched to using their first name. I'm prior military, so I also used a lot of sir and ma'am, too.

allnurses Guide · Sep 21, 2010

Here's a quaint relic of the past-- we called instructors by their title/lastname and we called each other by Miss Campell, Mr.Aguilar, or whatever even in the classroom away from the hospital. We were reprimanded for calling our classmates by their first name. It felt really odd at first but we got used to it.

ziggysgal,RN · Sep 21, 2010

We use last names... all the instructors are female and introduced themselves as Mrs. so-and-so, so last names it is.

~Mi Vida Loca~RN, ASN, RN · Sep 21, 2010

Our instructors insist on us using their first name, so I do, but it makes me uncomfortable and I have a hard time with it. I was always raised to call people Mr. and Ms. in any kind of authoritative setting, or like my friends parents and so on.