“Cold ok. Surgery not ok?”
Except for a surgeon that applies to most docs too.
I think nurse practitioner Ellie would be ok with a…
-“hi I am dr Ellie, billy, Andy or mike. I’m a nurse practitioner who will be helping you today. “
Informal and specific. No confusion. But it would let me know they are an accomplished NP. And if they take the time to talk to me and explain what they are doing it’s way ahead of the game compared to many of my doctor visits.
Well, a US MD is not a doctorate level degree, lacking in research and original contributions to knowledge.
A basic medical degree in most countries is a bachelor degree, and can sometimes be followed by a research-based MD.
Thanks @GTalum - that is exactly the kind of response I was looking for. I understand how a NP has additional training over an RN, but I was not sure what the doctorate level entailed. And I can certainly see how a person with that additional education could be valuable in a management or administrative role in addition to direct patient care.
Congrats on your imminent graduation!
Thanks @surfcity My special interest is using research to evaluate system changes for quality improvement. It’s added to my patient care in that I’m a better critical thinker and can better communicate evidence based practice to the patient. I plan not to use the title “doctor” in patient care as I want to differentiate myself from the MD and DO who I have the pleasure to work with and are excellent providers. The schedulers will be instructed not to use the title when scheduling patients. I already have a busy practice of long term patients who prefer to get their care from me.
However, I remain confused with the medical culture in that in a multi-disciplinary hospital meeting, the doctorate level nurses are referred to by first names and the physicians are referred to Dr. X. Also, I don’t know what is wrong with an address such as @privatebanker suggests. It seems to me, Dr. Ellie NP was as advertised.
A nurse practitioner isn’t a doctor. They may hold a doctorate and be permitted to use the title in correspondence, socially, and in some professional situations. But in an exam room the title doctor has a particular meaning. It may be semantics, but if she’s earned a PhD she’s smart enough to understand the difference. Being technically correct doesn’t excuse misleading people.
@austinmshauri I understand what you are saying. And misleading a patient is wrong.
But how is this misleading ?
“hi I’m dr Becky your nurse practitioner today.” With a big old name tag.
Rebecca Jones, NP. DNP, PhD
To me it’s is neither misleading or that hard to understand. Imho.
@“aunt bea”
I think the bigger issue here is you weren’t thrilled with this NP the last time you saw her. That being the case…ask for someone else when you make an appointment with this practice.
That’s not what she said. She just said “Hi, I’m Dr. Ellie.”
I changed to another NP.
Also, she introduced herself as a “doctor”, in an exam room, in a medical clinic.
If she had introduced herself as indicated in @VeryHappy’s post #87, I would not have had a problem with that.
I respect NP’s. I understand the extra training, practice and education. I try to schedule all of my “minor” ailments with them.
What I didn’t appreciate was her introduction as a medical doctor, which, in that setting, was misleading.
That’s what I reported to my physician at the follow-up visit. My physician was also concerned.
In an educational setting, with her Ph.D. in health education, no problem, she’s Doc Ellie Walker. In a clinical setting, about to examine me, it was an issue.
@VeryHappy My post is what would be an ok way for a NP to use Dr in a setting as you described. Without the NP part it is a bit confusing. Not sure it matters to me but it does to you and others. So definitely go to another practitioner for sure.
This thread has gotten me looking at licensure requirements for nurse practitioners and I have to say they are all over the place depending on state.
Some require a NP to work under a MD and others do not. Some can obtain the status on-line.
The thing that struck me was an NP required clinical hours ranges 500-1500 while an MD requires 15,000 hours.
To me, this is a side issue. The important question is whether NPs can provide the same quality of care as MDs/DOs and the jury appears to still be out on that one.
@roethisburger We actually have pretty good evidence for the quality of NP care if we stay within our scope of practice for which we were trained. The boards of nursing are concerned about anyone stepping out of that scope. For example, I am a family practitioner; it is what I trained for. Therefore, proof of additional certification training to work somewhere else, such as an ER, would be required. For an MD, who was trained in multiple specialty areas, including surgery and emergency medicine (to rotate through all the specialty practice takes years, hence the greater clinical hours @gouf78 ), additional training would not be required but may be needed if training happened years past. Someone coming out of med school does not have the number of clinical hours in family practice as I had at my master’s NP training. My DNP allows my to go into research, leadership, and education, but does not increase my scope of practice.
@GTalum --I appreciate your perspective. I’m wondering about your characterization of med school training, though. I know when my H was in med school, his last two years were entirely clinical (that is of course before multiple years of residency). That must have added up to thousands of hours even before residency.
Though I do know laws have somewhat limited the hours in the last couple decades.
Editing to add: of course I don’t know how many clinical hours you had, could also be those several thousands!
Maybe because my dad is a professor, I have no issue with people calling themselves “Doctor” if they have a PhD. Especially since the badge had “NP” on it.
My concern would be more with the statement that her manner was not what OP wanted. I go to a specialist practice where I am formally assigned to one doctor. When he is not available, I occasionally see another doctor. There is one, sadly the only female, who I refuse to see ever again. She is condescending. I looked her up and she isn’t even licensed for 5 years. By contrast, I have been practicing law for 35 years and would never speak to anyone the way she spoke to me. I haven’t filed a formal complaint, but I have told the front desk staff that I never want to see her.
If someone is an NP with a doctorate, I would think they could be referred to as doctor, but they might think about how it could be confusing in this type of setting. Since her badge said NP, maybe she thought that took care of the issue.
@garland my statement was just for the hours in my area of practice: Family medicine. Most med students, perhaps just rotate through a family practice or an internal medicine practice as they need to also rotate through lots of different specialty areas, both inpatient and outpatient, including surgery. There is not much time to spend in one particular area. Of course, going through multiple specialty clinics does a lot to inform the family physician and it’s why I depend on my physician colleagues. They are great with identifying the zebras I have not seen. The med school graduate can do anything wheras, I can only be working in outpatient family medicine with my more focused training. Your husband had a lot more clinical hours than myself, just not necessarily in my area of practice. At least that is true of the med students I have precepted.
Are you saying she was newly licensed within the last five years?
The BEST doctor I have…the best was a newly minted ophthalmologist who is about the same age as my son. He is brilliant. I started seeing him within 6 months of him passing his boards. He is beyond fantastic.
I wouldn’t judge someone solely based on the number of years they have been licensed.
I interact with college profs and scientists every day. Not a single one of them would introduce themselves or refer to others as a Dr. Suchandsuch. As one of them said, a PhD is something that attaches at the end of your name, not in front. 
Maybe it is regional… We are way less formal here in PNW.
@BunsenBurner I don’t think that’s a regional thing. It’s the same on the east coast.
It’s about environment. If there are tons of phds around the office or school it would be odd to do this all day. They are peers. Medical offices are a bit different. And dnp and PhD may be appropriate to use or not depending on how and why. Is it clear that they are not an md or not.
Psychologist’s do it 100 percent of the time and are a PhD. I wouldn’t dare tell them it’s only for the end of their name.
Researchers and profs being introduced as a speaker at conference is common too.
Researchers and scientists to a group of test subjects or group. Generally yes as well.
In a business setting such as finance or financial analysis. A PhD in economics is always referred to as Dr X to people outside of their work group. Anything public.