AIBU - use of ‘Dr’ title - is this normal?!

[Cheesecake45]

Just not sure if I need to get with the times or not - is it normal to go by the title ‘Dr’ simply for having a PhD, if you aren’t in the medical profession? I’m talking one of the easiest PhDs to get (comparatively speaking), nothing vaguely linked to medicine.

AIBU??
YES = this is totally normal get over yourself
NO = wouldn’t be caught dead calling myself a doctor unless I could be assistance in a medical emergency!

What the fuck are you wittering about?

My dad (who was a medical doctor) would always point out that medical doctors don't really deserve to call themselves "Doctor", as they hadn't earnt a doctorate.

If you've earnt the right to call yourself doctor (or indeed professor) through sheer hard work and dedication, why shouldn't you? I would.

If someone would ridicule a Dr for using the title they've earned, that says a lot about them.

its not just surgeons, when i was working in the NHS, quiye a few of the non surgical consultants dropped Dr for Mr when they got a consultant's job.

Our top boss uses the title at any excuse their PhD was obtained by what they call " a body of work" which is basically other people's ideas and work and having a good relationship with the appropriate university (not a highly respected one

Calling a receptionist a numbskull is pretty disgusting. Is this what doing a PHD taught you is acceptable behaviour?

Not that difficult to read posts using relevant buttons on MN

So many people achieve so much in every field of life but there are only a very few sections of society where they think what they have achieved is so important that they think everybody should know by having a special title. Of course it is hard work to get a Phd, but why should that achievement give you an entitlement to ensure everybody knows about it. What about all other hard won achievements in life.

Still waiting to hear what people are supposed to be jealous of…

I’m a registrar. I go by first name. But I still call consultants Dr X etc. unless they correct me. Often other doctors take care to be very polite to bosses.

I call patients by first name as I’m not of a generation that called anyone Mrs X except for their primary school teacher and I’ve never had a patient expect to be addressed by a title. I try to ask people what they want to be called though and if they want to be called something I try to stick to that.

Told you, read susequent posts
No further engagemt required

As a doctor myself (registrar) I’ve never seen anyone except surgeons drop Dr formally. They’ll go by Simon or Lucy to lots of colleagues but not Mr Jones when they could be Dr Jones. Which specialty is it?

For surgeons it’s a badge of honour to revert to Mr or Ms.

I have a PhD. It’s relevant to my work but lots of us have them and no one tends to use them there.

I tend not to use a title at all but if I’m forced to then I use Dr, given that it is actually my title. So that is on the odd bill plus at my kids’ school, where about a third of the teachers also have PhDs and I’ll be damned if I’m going to call them Dr Smith while they call me Mrs VanTullek.

Very odd thing for someone to get upset about.

I used to do the same when i worked in the NHS (I am not a doctor) I am retired now and was speaking as a patient.

My kids have (female) teachers who are Dr’s. I love this - fabulous role models for the children. I also have a number of friends and relatives with PhD’s and I always address them as such! They’ve worked so hard for it and deserve recognition for the level of study they have done. Most of them are down to earth and don’t care what you call them though (out of a professional setting).

I work with medical Doctors. I call them Doctor too. If I’m honest, have a lot more respect for the ones who have earnt their PhDs through primary research than those who have been ‘taught’.

Yep, Dr here (DPhil to be precise) and I believe that the Dr title is my correct title, above Mrs or Ms.

it was paediatrics but many years ago.

I have a PhD but I don't use the title "Dr" outside a professional context. Well, I have used it once, when someone was being unbearably condescending. They then asked, "Are you Miss or Mrs?" I'm neither in reality. I am married but kept my own name, so I usually go by "Ms." But this person was so insufferable that I said, "It's Dr. Pushkin, actually." In normal circumstances, I wouldn't do that.

More like people whose egos are so fragile that they need the validation of all and sundry.

For the avoidance of doubt - use your title at work. Knock yourself out. Do not use it when, as a pp said, you are speaking to someone in eg a call centre. Actually, DO, you will give them a right laugh!

Which means you have nothing.

I'd like one of those easy PhDs! If I had it I've get t-shirts printed with 'it's doctor to you bitch!' on them.

Interesting. Why don't surgeons use the doctor title?

And why are male consultants "Mr"? Are female consultants "Mrs"?

I have massive respect for people who have PHDs (even though it makes me think of that Friends episode "Pretty huge....!") and they definitely deserve to use the title of Dr.

Because it allows you the right to use a particular title.

Why do some married women use Mrs? Why is telling the world you're married acceptable but being referred to as Dr not?

Actually if you call your consultant Dr or Mr Bloggs in front of your patient who you call Brenda, that's very discourteous. If you introduce yourself with yiur first name, you may use mine, providing you ask. If you introduce yourself as Dr Student you may call me Mrs Hellebores. To do otherwise is reductive and patients are not yiur subordinates.

Your practice with your Consultant and their expectation of deference sums up much that is structurally wrong with the NHS and its approach to equality