Opinion: Dr. Who? The nurse labeled like a doctor
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An emerging trend among nurses and possibly other health professionals is to study for a PhD in their field and then introduce themselves to patients as ‘Dr.’ Smith, the New York Times reports. Professional organizations are pushing to require higher degrees among these healthcare workers, partly to help qualify them for higher positions, such as administrative jobs, and partly to seek more authority and pay for them.
Doctors, of course --what you would traditionally think of as doctors -- are fighting this. And frankly, I find it disturbing. Nurse practitioners can make wonderful healthcare providers, and patients often prefer them to the folks with the big degrees. Without getting into the argument about whether nurses or physical therapists all need a doctorate to do excellent work -- isn’t higher education too expensive for too many people as it is? -- the big issue here is about consumer information.
Doctors and nurses can argue all day long about the relative merits of a PhD in medical practice, but the issue that should govern state laws is what the patient makes of all this.
A nurse with a PhD has every right to claim the title ‘Doctor,’ but not, if we care about transparent consumer information, in a medical setting, where the patient naturally assumes that means a medical doctor. In an administrative office, at a social event, in a school, fine. But at the clinic, the hospital, the medical office, it’s just downright misleading.
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