NPs practicing as DRs

Well personally I do not think the education I am about to receive will be a joke. It is a tough 3 year program that will take a lot of time and dedication. I also have no intention of having patients refer to me as "Dr." as I believe that may be confusing. I believe it is a shame that our profession can not be supportive of each other:twocents:

and I don't think my two year MSN program was a joke, I just think that If we are going to offer a doctorate then we SHOULD be proud to call our selves doctors and have the education to back it up.

I believe it is a shame that our profession can not be supportive of each other:twocents:

*** Those who choose to not be supportive of their fellow RNs are the ANA and like minded people who are trying to force DNP as entry for practice for advanced practice nurses down our throats.

I don't know if I should entertain what is clearly a pejorative query, but yes, I hold a clinical doctorate. I don't just think so, lol.

I'm about to graduate from my MSN-FPMHNP program in May... I've reviewed curricula from several schools and really see no benefit from the DNP as it stands now. There's nothing directly "clinical" about the majority of the coursework for this "clinical doctorate." Seems more like the boring bastard child of a second-rate MPH degree and nursing systems or health policy program.

I'm willing to bet the DNP offers more of the same ridiculous busy work that plagues my MSN program. Endless hours of eye-glazing, mind-numbing "cultural competency" lectures/workshops/assignments. 20 page APA-formatted, referenced papers on the history of dryer lint.

Oh, and the icing on the cake... huge, unnecessary debt with no rhyme, no reason, no payoff.

I'll pass.

@Esme12 - though i just graduated 14 months ago, I do see going the full MD route, unless a shorter bridge program is out there using my NP experience.

My husband has a PhD in Biochemistry. But he wouldn't casually refer to himself as "doctor". When I met his mother, she spent much of the time saying "Have you met my son, the doctor". (I met her after he graduated, but before he had a chance to visit her). While he has a doctorate, I think the term "Doctor" has a connotation of only a medical doctor, unless in an academic conference.

A DNP is a doctorate. While being referred to as "doctor" may be technically correct, the general population (ie: patients) would be expecting a medical license.

As for the testing, I do believe that nurses that get an associate's degree as well as those with a bachelor's degree are still required to pass the same test. But, there are (theoretically) differences in the education. I'm not familiar with the educational and clinical requirements of the MSN versus the DNP. I do know there are educational differences between other master's and doctorate programs.

I do see going the full MD route, unless a shorter bridge program is out there using my NP experience.

*** There is not a shorter rout to physician cause of NP or any other experience. If you want to be a physician in the USA you must graduate fom medical school and there are no medical schools that will give you advanced standing or credit for being an NP.

A Ph.D is usually called a doctor in academic settings -- you have a Ph.D in astrophysics, you're Dr. Jane Smith to students and other faculty, in papers, etc. You're Ms. Smith, Ph.D everywhere else. Same thing with a DNP. You're Dr. Jane Smith, DNP, in academia, and Jane Smith, NP-C, DNP everywhere else.

I think the problem is we really don't have a good colloquially used noun for the NPs and DNPs. I think they should be Practitioner Smith in the clinical setting, just like Joe Blow, MD is Dr. Blow.

I do know that I will be getting a degree as an advanced practitioner. I know I eventually want to get my PhD and teach other nurses, but I don't think I'll get my "DNP." If I did, due to very serious confusion and liability issues, I would never refer to myself as doctor in a clinical setting with a patient. However, if I went through enough school to obtain a doctorate, I would surely be calling myself a doctor outside of the clinical setting. Around here (somewhere in the Pacific Northwest), if you've got a dotorate, people call you doctor; it doesn't matter whether you have a doctorate in biology, medicine, or something stupid, you are called doctor.