PAs and NPs for Primary Care

tamagotchi
Fri, 14 Nov 2025 17:46:54 +0000

WayOutWestMom:

It appears that your healthcare provider organization needs to do some retraining for their personnel.

Quite possibly… but I’m not sure how easy it is to actually notice this distinction when they are looking at the file. Although my PCP is with Sutter, most of my specialty care is through Stanford, and every time a staff person associated with Stanford refers to my PCP, they say “Doctor NPName.” So I’m guessing the file just shows something like PCP: NPName without having her title right next to it.

ucbalumnus:

What would the proper one word title in a health care context be for an NP or PA? Or is it just an uphill battle to get people to say “Nurse Practitioner [Name]” or “Physician Assistant [Name]”?

When people at our clinic refer to my NP and do not use the word Doctor, they use her full name (both first and last) without any title… or they just use her first name! They wouldn’t do that if she was an MD/DO. It always bugged me a little that they referred to her so informally compared to other practitioners, but it also bugs me if they incorrectly say “Doctor.”