PAs and NPs for Primary Care

ucbalumnus
Mon, 17 Nov 2025 00:44:29 +0000

1214mom:

Why doesn’t a PhD deserve to be “Doctor?”

Depending on the context, people tend to make different assumptions about the meaning of “Doctor [name]”:

Academic: can mean PhD.

Most health care: usually seen as meaning physician only.

Dental office: can mean dentist.

Optometry office: can mean optometrist.

I once had a college instructor mention declining to indicate the “Dr.” when given the option of “Mr.”, “Ms.”, etc. for something like an airline ticket because of the possibility that indicating “Dr.” may result in being asked to help in a medical emergency.