(In fact, nurse practitioner or physician assistant sounds far more professional than provider anyway!) This ‘doctoring’ verb made it easy to call medical practitioners ‘doctors’. That alone is shitty and unprofessional coming from a physician, and even worse coming from a practitioner than didn't go to medical school and used to a nurse. If someone enters the room and says; "Hi, I'm Doctor Smith. They refer to themselves as Mr as it’s an old tradition dating back to when surgeons used to be barbers. ... J.D.s can now call themselves doctors … Surgeons are not the top Doctors firstly, they are on par with other consultant Doctors in the UK. After reading the article I had more questions and frustrations than ever! In 2011, the New York Senate proposed a bill that would bar nurses from advertising themselves as “doctors… I think this directly relates to the (awesome) discussion that was started two posts… Most physician’s assistants (PAs) that I have encountered are comfortable with their patients addressing them by their first name. The same holds for nurse practitioners (NPs). As a nurse practitioner and nurse midwife of many years, I enter the room and say "Hi, I'm Jacque a nurse-midwife (nurse practitioner if more appropriate). By the way, in your hypothetical, if a family nurse practitioner answered the call, would you force them to sit back down and not render aid? If they try to explain their positions, it often creates confusion or even trouble (when a patient declines protocol until they see who they want). Secondly, in a clinical setting, having someone introduce themselves as Doctor and a Nurse is wholly confusing for the patient. I think that we need to respect the patient's right to choose a medical provider and allowing nurses or PA's or pharmacists to call themselves "Doctor" when introducing themselves causes confusion. Some call me, Missy First name. Others call me, Dr. First name. I introduce myself as, Ms. Last Name, your Nurse Practitioner. The icing on the cake is that she walks into patients' rooms wearing a white coat and introduces herself as a medical doctor. These proposals are not limited to Florida. It appears that physicians are upset about the whole DNP situation, and are about to put up a fight. This new group, the ancestor of the modern GP, took care of the whole family: diagnosing, delivering babies, compounding and dispensing drugs, and other surgical tasks. And, I have a couple who call me, Nurse … Many MA refer themselves as nurses because colloquially people call anyone that is not a doctor, a nurse. I just read an article regarding nurses calling themselves "doctor." 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