Does anybody here feel like I do regarding calling nurses by their first names and doctors are called Dr. so-and-so?
I think this adds to the god-complex that physicians sometimes have which nurses and other hospital employees help perpetuate.
I don't like calling the physician by Dr. so-and-so while he or she calls me Peggy. I've discussed this with other nurses and they don't really seem to have any problem with it. Why is it acceptable for us to use formal address when talking with physicians and they use informal when addressing us? Why aren't we called Nurse so-and-so in order to receive the same level of formal address that physicians get?
I recently started a new job at a hospital that prides itself in not perpetuating the physician-god-complex, however, physicians are very much addressed using the formal while they don't extend the same respect to those with whom they work. When introducing myself to one of the physicians, I asked him how he wanted me to address him and he replied, "Dr. (blank)." I said is this only in front of patients or all the time. He looked at me with a bit of a question and responded with, "Well, really only in front of patients. My name is David and that is what you can call me." I smiled, shook his hand and told him my fist name. Would it have been rude for me to smile, shake his hand and ask him to call me Nurse (blank) had he requested that I always address him as Dr. (blank)?
I have felt this way for quite a while. I find that it is interesting that most of the nurses that I talk to are so adamantly against wearing their last name on their badges- going as far as to blank it out with tape in order to prevent stalker patients. Don't doctors have this problem? You don't see doctors introducing themselves by their first names for security reasons. I haven't gone as far as actually attempting to change the culture myself, although I did once work wit h a nurse that introduced himself over the phone as Nurse_____
Physicians can have stalkers as well as nurses. Most physicians I have worked with over the past 20 years either have a cell phone( in recent years) or have unlisted phone numbers. Not having last names on badges for healthcare professionals is a very smart choice. I would white out my last name as well to protect the safety of myself and my family.
I take care of gang members, convicts and other unsavory characters. When you have had someone threaten you with violence and also threaten to harm your family-you have a much different view of being upset about not being called by your last name.......
This thought (that the OP had) has occurred to me. However, this doesn't bother me. I'd just as soon be a bit distant and formal with most of the doctors. I'm not talking unfriendly, I have just been burned before by mean doctors and don't care to make friends with them the way some nurses do.
What does bug me is when nurses with Ph.D.'s aren't called Dr. Soandso unless they prefer not to be. I don't know if anyone else has experienced this, but at the nursing school I attended, the doctoral nurses were generally called by their first names, presumably because they worked with doctors and those were the "real doctors." I have a previous degree before going into nursing, and we ALWAYS called our professors with a doctorate Dr. Soandso. Why is it different with nursing?
I just call residents by their last names unless they introduce themselves as "first name". I notice with female doctors though I always call them Dr. so and so. I wonder why I do that...lol. I use the Doctor title in front of patients for professionalisms sake, or if they are my elder out of respect (it is how I was raised I guess).
There is a nurse pracitioner at a practice where I am a patient. She also has a PhD. PhD's are generally called Dr. at their workplace and not in general. So if she is at the medical office, where she practices nursing, and she is referred to as Dr. So and So isn't that misleading?? In writing you see the Jane Doe, PhD not MD but patients in the office might think she's an MD.
I would really prefer not being called by my last name at work. I'm a student over 40 and at my present job it's first names all around. I only want to be called Mrs. or Ms. by children. When I take care of older patients, I always call them Mr. or Mrs. unless they ask otherwise, since that was part of the culture of their generation and to show respect.
I'm not a nurse yet, but my husband and I do own an orthopaedic sales business, so we spend a lot of time in the OR with MANY physicians. There isn't a SINGLE ONE of them who asks us to call them "dr." In fact, when we do say "Hey Dr. Ortho," they say, "No, no, call me Ryan or Tim or Dave," or whatever. We still typically say Dr. Ortho out of respect, but all of the doctors I know prefer to be called by their first names by their colleagues.
But, in general, I think that doctors work darn hard to earn that title, and I feel it's only right to use it every chance I get. Don't get me wrong, I believe that nurses work hard to get through nursing school, and if they'd prefer to be called "Nurse Kelley, or Nurse Smith" more power to 'em, but I know if I did 4 years of undergrad, 4 years of med school, and 3-10 years of residency, I'd be darn proud of the title I earned and use it every chance I got, so I don't hold it against any physician who does prefer to be called "Dr" by patients and colleagues alike.
I call the PA's by first name and the Doc by Dr.. I guess I like to keep a distance.
If I were a passenger on a plane I would rather hear the flight attendant say "We're rapidly losing cabin pressure but Captain Johns has it under control" Rather than "We're rapidly losing cabin pressure but Larry/Janet (have to be PC) has it all under control"
Several yrs ago I worked at a hospital that the biggest majority of the Docs wanted you to call them by their first names. It was also a teaching hospital so we had a lot of interns and residents. When I worked in the ER I always used first names with the interns and residents Also all the attendings in the ER. One night I called one resident by his first name and he whiped around and started screaming at me that I was always to refer to him as Dr. soandso, I earned the right to be addressed as such. It didn't phase me abit, I just said whatever and moved on. Five minutes later he called me by my first name. I just happened to be sitting next to the ER attending (I had known him since he was a medical student.) I stood up and walked over to the resident and told him "Don't you ever call me by my first name. You don't know me well enough. You can call me Mrs. Bigmouth or even better Nurse Bigmouth. I am far older than you and deserve to have you call me Mrs or Nurse out of respect." My buddy ER Doc started laughing so hard he fell over backwards in his chair. From that day on they started calling me Nurse Bigmouth. BTW that clown resident was dropped from his emergency residency due to so many med errors and screwed up attitude towards patients
HAHHAHAHA! I love it! I feel that where I work in an ER we are very close with our Doctors. We are all on a first name basis with all of them. I think we spend so much time with eachother it would be weird to call them anything else.
Specializes in Trauma,ER,CCU/OHU/Nsg Ed/Nsg Research.
HAHHAHAHA! I love it! I feel that where I work in an ER we are very close with our Doctors. We are all on a first name basis with all of them. I think we spend so much time with eachother it would be weird to call them anything else.
I have found it to be like that in the ER & ICU as well.
Our intensivist is called Dr. ______ to the family.
To nurses in general, he's called Dr. ______
To us nurses who deal with him daily (he's our ICU intensivist) it really depends upon how you relate to him. I have a nickname for him that he's cool with. I share it with people only when he's had a tough day and needs a laugh. I respect him; he respects me; so our nicknames are exclusive of patients. In front of patients, no matter WHAT, he'll always be Dr. ______. To the families, I always tell them that they have the best physician for their family's issue.
And I always know he'll back me up as the MD. He trusts me, and I trust him. I'm lucky to have him as my intensivist.
Otessa, BSN, RN
1,601 Posts
Physicians can have stalkers as well as nurses. Most physicians I have worked with over the past 20 years either have a cell phone( in recent years) or have unlisted phone numbers. Not having last names on badges for healthcare professionals is a very smart choice. I would white out my last name as well to protect the safety of myself and my family.
I take care of gang members, convicts and other unsavory characters. When you have had someone threaten you with violence and also threaten to harm your family-you have a much different view of being upset about not being called by your last name.......
otessa