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

No use it...just be careful if book a flight and someone gets ill mid flight. Queue awkward moments trying to explain you aren’t a medical doctor 🙈😂

Congratulations and don't cringe!

My boyfriend at college never used his title except professionally and at the GP. He said it was the only way he could get the GP to listen to him rather than palm him off

I thought he was being daft until I had my first DC and the health visitor asked about my profession. She treated me totally differently from other mothers. So I started testing it out. If an HCP knows my background/title, I find I am taken much more seriously. Given that doctors tend to take women less seriously than men when they report pain/symptoms, it's not such a bad thing to use your title...

You earned your title. Use it . Congratulations.

It's your formal title. It's not about insisting. You're hardly going to require the GP to use it. It's the same as putting Ms or Mrs. And congratulations!

My friends husband is a Dr an astrophysicist, he had it on his passport and when someone was ill on a plane and he was really embarrassed when an airline steward asked him to help after looking at the manifesto.

This ^ is why dh NEVER uses his on plane tickets / passports

Yanbu at all, you earned it! Congratulations Dr chocolatebutton

Well done on your phd.

But how does using Ms define your marital status? Isn’t that what it’s for - title for a woman that doesn’t indicate marital status? That’s how I use/see it anyway. Open to be correct about it’s true meaning!

And the people saying its 'poncey'.... I dont get this. Is it 'poncey' to use Mrs? Or is it totally ok, because that shows you are married?

Theres a little bit of a whiff of misogyny here.

Also, massive difference between putting letters after a name and a PhD changing your title. Not the same thing at all.

@magnarocks

Not at all, it's fine.

Most people, or at least, those with a public facing role don't assume that 'Dr' automatically means medical doctor.

I think they do tbh....

Fine at GP' s but don't do it on your passport! I was once on a plane where somebody had a heart attack and they approach the "Dr" in the row in front of me. Poor man was a "Dr " of history or something but definitely not medical. Poor guy was horrified.

In my line of work I see people use all sort of titles. The most inappropriate was someone using Dr at work when they worked in a hospital- as an administrative assistant. That felt very wrong and misleading.

I think you can get away with this OP.

You can use Dr if you want to, but the idea that women have to be a Dr in order to avoid being defined by marital statement is not correct--Ms. does that task just fine.

If you want to change it, just say to the staff that you clicked the wrong place on the online form by mistake and would like to change it. People miss-click forms all the time, it's not a big deal.

FWIW, I don't know anyone except medical doctors who uses "Dr" in day to day life, but on the other hand the surgery prob won't ask or comment.

Correct title - why not use it. GPs will know about the "other sort of doctor" - they'll have met plenty at university. They may be interested to know which sort of Dr you are, and after that it will just act as a flag that this patient is pretty intelligent. (DH is Dr, and medics usually talk to him in rather more scientific terms than they probably do to most people - I'm sure they don't assume that his PhD is anything scientific, but they quickly establish that he can cope with a detailed scientific explanation.)

Well considering that DH's brother asked us to call him Dr when he got his PhD then you are absolutely not being unreasonable at all. In fact, he even told his mum to ensure that she addressed him as such in front of other people!

Own it, you deserve it you earned it. I always use dr as I hate to be known as woman- married, or woman- doesn't want you to know if married or not.... because it's bloody irrelevant!

It's your title. Why wouldn't you use it?

I can understand writing in the bottom of an email/letter when conversing with someone in the same field.

But no I wouldn’t put it in a form in any other capacity. Lots of people have qualifications and whilst entitled to use letters after their name etc I think it’s a bit cringe out with working environment.

Ms is suffice if you don’t want Mrs/Miss.

OP, your post reminded me of the classic Friends line:

Ross: “...and I’m Dr Ross Geller”
Rachel: “Oh please Ross, this is a hospital, that actually means something here”

Seriously though, it’s fine to use Dr as your title whenever a title is required - it is your title (and congrats!) What I can’t stand are those pillocks who call themselves “Dr/Prof X Y” on Twitter, when no-one writes “Ms/Mr X Y” on there 🙄

There are always posters on these threads saying that none of the many PhDs they know use Dr outside of their academic field. I'd like to balance that by saying that every single PhD I know uses their title outside of work. Not that we're all going around addressing each other as Dr Sheep or Dr Sheep's Mate socially - that really would be weird... I'm not disputing other posters' experiences, I'm just saying that it's by no means universal,so I really wouldn't worry about it whether you choose to use it or not.

And you should definitely use it. It's the proactively feminist thing to do. Well done!

However, well done on your achievements!! Fab

I am a medical doctor and if I see Dr in the notes I usually ask if they’re a medical doctor or not as it might change how I explain things. But I wouldn’t bat an eyelid if they were a non-medical doctor.

The 'Dr' title for most medics is technically what's known as a courtesy title, as most of them don't have an academic doctoral qualification.

So hell yeah, you should use it, you're the real Doctor!

@Twinkie01

My friends husband is a Dr an astrophysicist, he had it on his passport and when someone was ill on a plane and he was really embarrassed when an airline steward asked him to help after looking at the manifesto.

Wow, they looked all the way to the 'observations' page to check everyone's title?

That must have taken ages!

You'd think they'd just put out an announcement asking for a medic, like usual.

(UK passports don't include your title next to your name. Occasionally I think people tell little fibs, because if it this story really happened as often as I've heard it told, I think we'd have to believe PhDs with 'Dr' in their passport are the most frequent and unlucky fliers ever!)

Don't be embarrassed, you're a doctor and have every right to be proud of yourself.

I don't use mine at the GP surgery (UK) as I felt faintly pompous especially as I am not saving any lives!! -but if I have a referral to a consultant then I do, mainly because I think sometimes middle aged slightly chubby women (as I am) are often not taken seriously. They are all calling themselves Mr!! No one minds though ..
However I am known as Mrs Gouda at the GP although am not as I never took my husbands name when we married.. and I dislike Ms. So its a bit odd.
It was useful when my credit card got stolen (and can attest to this by a friend who had same thing happen) because the thieves in both were 18 year olds..
Congrats too.