So a professor, whom I apparently should call PC PhD as opposed to Dr C, gave me a copy of The National Psychologist with a recommendation to subscribe. Among other interesting articles was one entitled Ph.D. use of 'Doctor' Under Attack.
The article referred to three particular issues going on presently. The first is that Rueters News Service and the Associated Press put out style books recommending how news stories should be formatted. The most recent Reuters edition reads, "Do not use Dr. for doctors of philosophy, etc, but it can be used for archbishops and the like in preference to honorifics like the Very Rev, or the Most Rev. The AP publication states, "Use Dr. in first reference as a formal title only before the name of an individual who holds a doctor of dental surgery, doctor of medicine, doctor of osteopathy, or doctor of podiatric medicine degree."
The second item of note is The Health Care Truth and Transparency Act of 2007. Currently in the House. This site offers a link to the actual bill http://www.asahq.org/news/asanews052407.htm Purportedly this law will restrict the use of the salutation of 'Dr' or 'Doctor' to a select few medical professionals.
Thirdly there is the existing law in Maine (since 1971), Title 32, Sections 3269 and 3270-A of chapter 48, Board of Licensure in Medicine stating that it is a Class E crime for anyone to use the term "Dr." or "Doctor" with the exception of physicians, chiropractors, naturopathic doctors, optometrists or podiatrists.
The article states there is a coalition of organizations for various scientific disciplines called PARCA, which includes the APA. It does appear to have been active in fighting off some of this legislation in the past.
Not mentioned in the article, but something I found while web crawling is this article about a law suit against seven members of the Max Plank Society's research institute in Germany for illegally using Dr on public documents. (In Germany one is only legally a Doctor if one graduates from a European university!)
So what do people think about all this? Do we really need to worry?
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5 comments:
It doesn't surprise me that there is a movement to legally do what people believe socially already. I don't know how many times I've gotten the "but you're not a real doctor" comment.
I do understand the need to make sure that people are not misrepresenting their qualification to patients. However, I certainly do not go into the hospital and claim to be "dr postdoc" and I don't know many phd's who do.
It doesn't bother me, but I have a sort of radical view where I despise titles in most situations. In the academy I feel like titles contribute to the obsession with status and the abuse of subordinates. In the corporate world there are many offices where everyone from the mail guy to the boss use first names. I worked in an office like that once, and it was really refreshing.
Titles in print are a different issue, of course, but I would be okay with being identified as a "a professor" (or whatever I end up being when this is all over.) I guess it's because I hate titles anyway and plan to tell everyone to use my first name after I graduate.
Hmm... well my thoughts are that while it is quite true that titles are often overrated and abused, it is the OPTION to use Dr or Doctor that I resent having removed. Doctor is derived from the word teacher, thus denying professors in particular from using it seems especially egregious to me. And we are receiving DOCTORal degrees, are we not?
While I think it's critical that every professional make clear what his or her training is, I'm also sick and tired of the deification of medical professionals in general. It seems that in the US, MD is somewhere just below God, or maybe equal. So now we are being told that the designation Dr is always equivalent to MD and we mustn't presume to usurp the title. Where have I heard this line before? Oh yes... Thou shalt have no other gods before me. My knee jerk reaction is HACK THAT PEDESTAL DOWN!!! MDs are important to us all and they are talented, useful people (my dad and my sister are both MDs, btw), but they are NOT any more talented and useful than anyone else who is trained at the doctoral level. The fact that there is so much confusion about what the word 'doctor' means suggests to me that we (primarily the media, since they are the ones who create images to begin with) need to clarify the term, not that we need to CHANGE what it means!!! For heaven's sakes, the term Doctor has been used by philosophers for THOUSANDS of years. The article I quoted suggests that a large part of the problem was created by the media in the first place by removing the use of physician and surgeon from their stylebooks years ago, and lumping everyone into the same vague designation of doctor.
Ok, so obviously titles are important to me. Or rather what is important to me is language. Language is a very powerful tool, and while I may not choose to use the salutation of Dr in most settings, I refuse to give up the right. It's the principle of the thing...
This bothers me. My psychologist eraned the right to be called Dr. I absolutely believe that, although she prefers that patients call her by first name...her voicemail says "Dr....".
I guess that when I finish school...I plan to become an NP and then finish a PhD...I won't be called Dr. nurse?!? Damn...I thought that would be fun. :P
Dr Nurse? I love it! LOL! My poor dad. My sister became an MD, but she changed her name when she married so there is no Dr. Dad The Second for him to feel warm about. I thought I'd do that for him, even if I'm not an MD, but whoops, there goes THAT idea!
Once when my dad had just finished med school a Ph.D. friend of his brought his daughter over to play with my sister. When the little girl was introduced to my dad she asked her mother, "Mommy, is he a real doctor, or just a rat doctor like daddy?"
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