Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed a bill into law May 2 preventing nonphysicians from using specialty titles such as "doctor," in an effort to promote transparency for patients.
Senate Bill 197 was written by state Sen. Chuck Hufstetler, a certified anesthesiologist assistant. It's summary outlines an aim "to prohibit deceptive or misleading terms or false representations by healthcare practitioners in advertisements and representations" and to do the same regarding the "misappropriation of medical or medical specialty titles."
This has been an issue in question for many years.
Here is the 2014 PEARSON REPORT. All US States address using the title Doctor by a Nurse Practitioner, specifically.
Examples (bear in mind this information was published 9 years ago):
Georgia
California
Florida
I find the above quite reasonable. Patients should be able to know up front, at the point of contact/utilization of a nurse practitioner's services what type of license/certification the Nurse Practitioner holds. Patients should know that the person providing their care is not an MD or a DO. This doesn't in any way minimize the nurse practitioner's accomplishment in obtaining a doctorate and it means they can use the title Dr., but they must distinguish their credentials from that of a Doctor of Medicine or a Doctor of Osteopathy to the general public and to their patients.
@klone - I believe Florida is trying to do the same
I am not sure why DNPs are so enchanted with "Doctor" title. Clinically, Nurse Practitioners are providing better services to their patients all across United States than "Doctors" so as we speak. I feel a compliment when my patients address me as NP and not a Doctor. Most of the hospitals in East Coast are replacing MD "Doctor" with NP because of better outcome.
Specializes in Nurse Leader specializing in Labor & Delivery.
Here is the copy of the bill, and it would seem that Chare is correct - if an APRN identifies themself as "Dr. Smith" they must clarify that they are an APRN. (if you click on what looks like a photo, it will take you to the bill - I tried to post it as a link)
Quote
99 (d.1)(1) An advanced practice registered nurse shall verbally identify himself or herself
100 as an advanced practice registered nurse during each patient interaction in a clinical
101 setting. An advanced practice registered nurse who holds a doctorate degree and
102 identifies himself or herself with the title 'doctor' while in a clinical setting shall clearly
103 state that he or she is not a medical doctor or physician.
Specializes in NICU, PICU, Transport, L&D, Hospice.
DrDoofus said:
I am not sure why DNPs are so enchanted with "Doctor" title. Clinically, Nurse Practitioners are providing better services to their patients all across United States than "Doctors" so as we speak. I feel a compliment when my patients address me as NP and not a Doctor. Most of the hospitals in East Coast are replacing MD "Doctor" with NP because of better outcome.
Perhaps title "Doctor" will be obsolete soon.
Thank you, Senator Kemp.
"Enchanted"? They earned that title and have the receipts to prove it. Perhaps some are wanting to the title to be more exclusive than it needs to be for wrong reasons.
The term "doctor" will never be obsolete as long as universities continue to offer that level of advanced study. Maybe, instead, the term physician should be more widely used in healthcare rather than trying to restrict acknowledgment of advanced degrees in healthcare.
I think it's a bit ridiculous that a scientific paper was published based on the anecdotal experiences of one physician related to TWO patients he has seen. How many hundreds of other patients were cared for by DNPs and didn't have a bad outcome?!
I can't tell you how many times I've read an article or seen a post criticizing all advanced practice providers based on a single incident someone saw or heard about from a friend.
They have to do that because the evidence doesn't support them. The best they can do is try to scare people with these anecdotes.
I hope one day we will be able to view each other as working as part of a patient-centered team. If you got your doctorate you should be able to call yourself doctor. I also think you should identify yourself as an APP because the average patient in the healthcare setting hears doctor and thinks MD or DO and it's truly not the same.
What is the issue? Let me guess, it's the special interest groups- ahem American medical Association cough cough, that would like to keep "nurses" in their places. This is absolutely ridiculous! In fact, if you do your research the people who are caught pretending to be doctors are laymen- not nurses, and certainly not nurse practitioners. I think if you introduce yourself- "hello my name is Dr. Sally Smith, nurse practitioner" what is deceitful about that? It opens a dialogue. Patients are informed through the office also who they are seeing, so I don't get this. Anyone with a terminal degree should be represented for their hard work. Anyone picking up pitchforks to remove Dr. Titles from dentists?? This is hogwash.
So are they coming for the psychologists? Every clinical psychologist goes by Dr X, and heck yes it confuses patients (who don't know the difference between a psychiatrist and a psychologist). So... is Georgia going to make them stop too?
Specializes in Psych, Corrections, Med-Surg, Ambulatory.
It sounds like one can identify as "doctor" as long as they're not misleading patients in a clinical setting.
The term "Dr" is practically synonymous with "physician"; it will take a long time to change public perception.
Until then, people need to be careful not to mislead. This is no different from UAP calling themselves "nurse". The public has a right to know exactly who is providing their care.
Emergent, RN
4,304 Posts
Actually I really meant Physicians, you are entirely correct.