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 usually introduce myself to patients like this: "I'm First name Last name, I'll be one of your doctors while your in the hospital." To everyone else, I just use my first name. The only time this causes trouble is on cross cover because sometimes we're covering patients in a unit we don't usually work in, so when you call back being like, "Hi this is firstname, returning a page," they're like, who?! (The call schedules they get only have our last names.) Similarly, the boards on the units always write the nurse's frst names, so when i call them, I have no choice but to refer to them by their first names. Interesting that the doctor's schedule is all last names, and the nurses assignments is all first names.....sort of makes it more convenient to call nurses by first names and docs by last names, unless of course, you know their first/last name. I'd venture to guess, although perhaps I'm incorrect, that more nurses know the first names of doctors than doctors know the last names of nurses. Perhaps that's part of the problem, too.
Also, I agree that this first name last name problem is less pronounced in the ED. I used to be an ED nurse for 2 years, and I think everyone in the department knew everyone elses' first and last name, but we were all first name basis.
Nurse2Doc2008
22 Posts
I usually introduce myself to patients like this: "I'm First name Last name, I'll be one of your doctors while your in the hospital." To everyone else, I just use my first name. The only time this causes trouble is on cross cover because sometimes we're covering patients in a unit we don't usually work in, so when you call back being like, "Hi this is firstname, returning a page," they're like, who?! (The call schedules they get only have our last names.) Similarly, the boards on the units always write the nurse's frst names, so when i call them, I have no choice but to refer to them by their first names. Interesting that the doctor's schedule is all last names, and the nurses assignments is all first names.....sort of makes it more convenient to call nurses by first names and docs by last names, unless of course, you know their first/last name. I'd venture to guess, although perhaps I'm incorrect, that more nurses know the first names of doctors than doctors know the last names of nurses. Perhaps that's part of the problem, too.
Also, I agree that this first name last name problem is less pronounced in the ED. I used to be an ED nurse for 2 years, and I think everyone in the department knew everyone elses' first and last name, but we were all first name basis.