@garland sorry for miscommunicating. Not my area of expertise as I need to worry about my own certifications. You are correct, it is 3 years to be board certified. You can practice without the board certification. For the physician I work with, he was able to do a 2 year residency by doing his residency in an underserved area. The residents are certainly “practicing” at this time. I just mentioned the doctor title as it was the theme of the discussion.
What about dentists? They use Dr. in front of their names. Our grade school had an unusual number of parents who were dentists. They were all called Dr. XXX by everyone. I’m sure my psychologist friends use ‘Dr’ if asked on the airline reservation for the prefix.
Yes, good point, twoinanddone. Dentists probably cannot assist in a medical emergency, unless it is a dental emergency.
My travel agent might list me as “Dr.” when she is booking my flights. I don’t when I make the reservations myself.
92 "...I am a family practitioner."
I think you meant to say that you are a Family Nurse Practitioner. (A family practitioner is a physician.)
Although physicians can be licensed after their first year of residency, and some residents will moonlight for extra income, it is highly unusual and extremely rare for primary care physicians to not complete at least 3 years of residency. 50-60 years ago, many went into private practice after a one-year internship, but that is no longer the case. Residency completion/board certification (eligibility) is required by almost all employers/insurance companies. Only in some alternative style of practice would a primary care doctor be able to make a living without these credentials. Including med school, that is 5 years of long hours of clinical training/supervision at minimum.
My kids and I see NPs for routine things like sports physicals, immunizations, etc. Nothing against them. H is a board certified FP/with additional fellowship in geriatrics who has worked with NPs for decades. Most are just fine. But there are some NPs who mistakenly believe their training is equal to that of a physician. They tend to get in over their heads, are overconfident–which sometimes leads to mistakes that the physician has to fix. Then there are a few who, lacking confidence, need to double-check all routine cases with the physician, which causes both of their schedules to get backed up.
Regarding the OP, I do think that the NP should introduce herself as a NP. Yes, she has a PhD in education, but in a clinical setting, imo, she is misrepresenting herself by introducing herself as “doctor.” My guess is that she uses this title not because she is proud of her PhD, but because she knows people will assume she is medical doctor, and she enjoys passing herself off as one: Dr. Wannabe. (Maybe she thinks she is keeping patients happy–because many are disappointed when they “only get to see the nurse?”)
Whether I would see someone again would probably have more to do with their manner/skills. But I think there is a character issue/pride/bit of dishonesty there to knowingly pass yourself off as something you are not. And that would influence my opinion, even if they did a good job.
Of course @atomom, I am a family nurse practitioner and never tried to imply differently. I have met no nurse practitioners who feel their training is equal to that of a physician, which doesn’t mean they aren’t competent in what they are doing. Like I said previously, we need to stay in our scope of practice.