Will the sky really fall if someone calls me "Doctor"?

First I want everyone to know that I work with a great bunch of providers here in Alaska. There are no “egos”, it is truly collaboration among providers, and a provider is a provider regardless of the letters after their name (NP, PA, MD, DO, PT, etc). The physicians here call me Doctor Cooper, and several have expressed their opinion that I should be called “Doctor” because I earned it.

Now with that out of the way, I know many of you are fighting the battle in you home state about the use of the term “Doctor”. There is a movement among the boards of medicine that think only a “physician” should be able to use the term “Doctor. Interestingly enough, many physicians are married to “doctoral prepared spouses”, although their “Doctorate” is not in medicine. If we are to validate their request to only allow “physicians” to use the term Doctor, think of all the professionals that would have to change their business cards.  Dentists, educators, college professors, veterinarians, and a multitude of other occupations would be required to change not only their business cards, but the signs on their businesses, their stationary, their checks, and who knows what else.  So I have to wonder if this is not a ploy by the “physician community” to “stimulate the economy”.

What if there was no “battle of the title Doctor”?  Well, let me tell you what would happen in that fairy tale land:

The Board of Medicine would hold their quarterly meeting in a rural hospital in their state. The Board would meet and conduct their business during the day, then have a get together in the evening at one of the local physician’s homes. The entire medical staff from the hospital would be invited (that means MDs, DOs, NPs, Pas, and PTs).

Now of the non physician medical staff present, there would be a NP or two that had their DNP and a physical therapist that had his DPT. Throughout the evening, the physicians and the non physicians enjoyed great food, great atmosphere, and discussed medicine and healthcare amongst themselves on a “peer to peer” level.

Well that is exactly what happened in Dillingham Alaska this week. And believe it or not, the sun came up this morning, the sky did not fall, last I checked the earth was still rotating, and I have not grown a third eye. It is really amazing what can happen when egos are checked at the door.

Have a great day!