To sign up at the surgery as ‘Dr’

[Chocolatebutton43]

I got my PhD two months ago, moved to a new place and signed up to a new doctor’s surgery and dental practice.

Filling in the forms, I got a bit carried away with my new title and ticked the ‘dr’ box! I’ve been doing it a lot lately for silly little things partly ‘cause I’m just happy to have finished and passed my degree and also because I relish that I am no longer defined by my marital status.

But, I now need to visit the surgery and I feel like an idiot. The form also had occupation so the doctor will know I’m not a medical doctor. Is he/she going to think I am a total prat for using Dr outside my work and at the doctor’s surgery of all places? Cringe

@Belladonna12 - that’s because it wasn’t wikepedia, genius!

[quote noworklifebalance]@Belladonna12 - that’s because it wasn’t wikepedia, genius![/quote]
So please link to where you got that information, genius!

Really?! You need to be able to look beyond wikepedia without asking others to do it for you. Clearly you are feeling a bit sore about it but were happy to correct others.

@noworklifebalance

Really?! You need to be able to look beyond wikepedia without asking others to do it for you. Clearly you are feeling a bit sore about it but were happy to correct others.

I asked where you got your information from because you claimed it wasn't from Wikipedia . I'm sure you would prove otherwise if you could but it seems you can't.

Try living in Italy where every other person is dottore or dottoressa. Just because they have a university degree 😂 🇮🇹

The 'risk' is you will be seen as masquerading as a medic

Unless people are barging into treatment rooms wearing scrubs, that’s not actually a risk at all, now is it?

OR just showing off your qualification

And what’s wrong with that? Academic PhDs are immense undertakings. By what reasoning should they hide their achievements under a bushel?

@Belladonna12

• ok sure, if that’s what you wish to believe. Not sure why you would think anyone would want to make up the fact the lawyers were referred to as doctors!

Where’s your evidence?

@saraclara

My opinion of academics has plummeted thanks to this thread.

Can you explain a bit more in what way @saraclara? Are you saying that you previously had a high opinion of academics as long as they didn’t want to use the title “Dr”?

I think one or two people with doctorates have said that they consider themselves to be “real doctors” but the vast majority have said nothing against medical doctors or suggested that they have any problem sharing the title with them. A few academics have said that they prefer not to use the title, quite a few have said they feel they have earned the right to use it and will do so.

Conversely, several people with neither PhD but medical qualifications, and at least one medical doctor, have accused academics of being boastful, impersonating medical doctors, acting like “dicks” when they fill in forms, endangering life on aircraft and having “mickey mouse” qualifications or ones obtained through corruption. Most have responded to that in a fairly measured, albeit persistent way.

What exactly have the academics said here that makes you lose respect for them?

[quote noworklifebalance]@Belladonna12

• ok sure, if that’s what you wish to believe. Not sure why you would think anyone would want to make up the fact the lawyers were referred to as doctors!

Where’s your evidence?[/quote] I didn't say anything about you making up the fact that lawyers were referred to as doctors.

I haven't read all of this thread but knowing a couple of PhDs and loads of doctors I'd have to say the former are every bit as bright and have put in just as much specialist hard work. And often in a quite isolated manner. They therefore deserve to use their titles. That said, DH doesn't - except in his professional setting. But there again he is super modest

Outside of an academic setting I don't see the validity of putting Dr in front of your name as all it shows is you have a higher qualification in some subject or other.

It's irrelevant except for CVs, LinkedIn and staff bios in a university or school

People always say this but since it's not the 1950s no-one uses titles at work (and virtually all my colleagues have PhDs anyway). We call each Rebecca, Jon or Inderjit not Dr Smith, Dr Brown or Dr Sidhu. My CV and linkedin page doesn't have my title at the top either, although my career and education makes it clear I have a doctorate. My email signature and business card are in the American style with my qualifications at the end (saying DPhil rather than PhD so making clear how prestigious my qualification is ). Never introduced myself at a drinks party as Dr either, not even in my college. So if I didn't use it with the bank or for car insurance or on my passport etc I'm not quite when it when it would be used .

saying DPhil rather than PhD so making clear how prestigious my qualification is

There is more than one uni which uses the former, you know!

True, but I went to the good one.

@CountFosco

True, but I went to the good one.

There are two that are pretty good and that use DPhil, are there others?

I think this is getting a bit silly now.

@RattleOfBars is obviously correct that, for quite a long time now, if someone said 'I'm a doctor' we'd all assume they meant a medic.

However (and I have a PhD in medieval studies, which is entirely useless, but does explain why I know this), the original use of 'doctor' does mean 'academic' as the word (doctus) just means 'learned person'. Actually, most medieval men who had a university education would call themselves 'master,' as in 'master of arts,' if they didn't have another superior title. Since most university education fed into the Church, you'd distinguish between Sir Smith (ordinary priest with no particular qualifications) and Master Smith (priest who'd been to university and was a master of arts).

You do get medieval people referring to 'doctors of physik,' but they don't really mean a practical doctor in the sense we mean it. There's just a much wider gap between being educated in theory (with lots of philosophy) and having practical awareness of what to do.

We really need to go with the American system, I think. There, you're 'Dr' whether you're an academic or a medic, but medics often seem to use 'Jane Smith, MD' rather than a title and academics are generally 'Prof Smith' and only use 'Dr' for formal contexts.

@CountFosco

True, but I went to the good one.

Ouch.

But just to confuse things @SarahAndQuack, in America, dentists are addressed as “doctor” by their patients. And possibly vets too? (by their patients’ owners, that is...)

Not to muddy the waters further but I just want to point out that it’s not only Clinical Psychologists who are Dr. Educational and Counselling Psychologists have doctorates too.
The ‘dr’ thing isn’t exclusive to a medical/clinical setting...

@CheetasOnFajitas

But just to confuse things *@SarahAndQuack*, in America, dentists are addressed as “doctor” by their patients. And possibly vets too? (by their patients’ owners, that is...)

Dentists are doctors, right? They go through medical school.

I hadn't realised about vets.

Vets in most countries are "Dr". The British "Mr" because "surgeon" is an anachronism, and has recently been changed so if you are MRCVS you can be "Dr", which bizarrely decreases your car insurance premium - quite a few of the big corporates asked their vets to take the title (to compete with German, Italian, Spanish and US vets who had the right to use it anyway).

You still get oddities like Mr Boss Surgeon, Dip ES, Dip EM, PhD, MA VetMB MRCVS remaining Mr despite being head of a university department, and having a PhD.

Titles and their proper use is a weird subject!

Dentists are doctors, right? They go through medical school.

No dentists go to dental school not medical school. Some use the title "Dr" nowadays but certainly not all.

Regardless, most people don't introduce themselves verbally with their title nowadays and given that it doesn't seem to confuse you that the clinical psychologist with PhD's have Dr in their email signature, why are you arguing that other people with PhD's shouldn't use their title in writing?

I’m not arguing that they shouldn’t use it in their electronic email signature or work-related writing. The signature reads:
‘Dr (name)
Clinical Psychologist’
So there’s no confusion. They’re using it within a professional context and usually to show they’re one of the lead psychologists.

In the hospital I work people tend to introduce themselves with their first name and profession (eg ‘Dr Anne’ or Sarah, Physio’ or ‘Tom, Psychologist’) unless we’re on a ward people know us. But most of us have outlying patients on other wards so yes we give our profession as well as name. And the doctors tend to go by ‘Dr (first name)’ as they rotate so often. So even on the ward they work staff might say ‘has anyone seen Dr John?’ or if they’re a consultant or registrar they’re usually referred to by their surname as a mark of respect eg ‘has anyone seen Dr Smith?’

I’ve never known a clinical psychologist introduce themselves to a patient as ‘Dr’ as the patient hears ‘doctor’ and is likely to think you’re a psychiatrist (who has the power to discharge them or put them on section or change their meds) so they’re less likely to relax and open up! White coat syndrome I guess, patients often get nervous around doctors!

The exact same applies to (non medical) Doctors of Clinical Psychology

Out of genuine curiosity, does this also apply to doctors of chartered psychology? I’ve always wondered about the differences, they both have PhDs and can use the Dr title but are chartered psychologists always non-clinical? I know they use the Dr title on papers they publish which seems sensible.

Exactly. I wonder if the people who think using "Dr" is showing off, were quick to change their title to Mrs if they got married

It’s hardly the same thing. Mrs only implies marital status, there’s no risk you’ll be mistaken for a medical doctor! And like Dr it’s an optional title.

It’s hardly the same thing. Mrs only implies marital status, there’s no risk you’ll be mistaken for a medical doctor! And like Dr it’s an optional title

Why are you so concerned about people with PhDs being mistook for medical doctors? It has only happened to my husband once in my presence and the conversation went 'what hospital do you work at?', 'I don't, it's a PhD, I'm an engineer', 'ok, cool' and that was it.