‘Kind of Awkward’: Doctors Find Themselves on a First-Name Basis, NYT

[Jaybee00]

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/13/...YTFj31MKa5rEq5lhGyaZAbBf5IDuKh&smid=share-url

“Doctors may not enjoy the real world’s tilt toward informality. The survey in 2000 showed that 61 percent were annoyed when patients addressed them by their first name.

Their annoyance makes sense, said Debra Roter, an emeritus professor of health, behavior and society at Johns Hopkins’ Bloomberg School of Public Health. Using a first name can violate the boundary between doctor and patient.

“Doctors might find it is undermining their authority,” Dr. Roter said. “There’s a familiarity that first names gives people.””

Always wonder if this “you must call me Dr.” thing varies by country.

 

[oldtimer]

Couldn't agree more. I do not want to be friends with my doctor - or my dentist either. Given the nature of what can be discussed, I want a boundary that implies treatment on strictly professional terms.

I have a close friend who gets on first name terms with GPs and specialists alike after one visit. As an ex-manager in a very large government organisation and an intellectual snob of the highest order, she insists on being treated as an equal with everyone. Her extraordinary ignorance and complete lack of interest and knowledge in anything to do with medicine and biology makes her insistence on equivalence in a professionally unequal situation with a complete stranger looks like arrogance in my opinion. And why would you want to be friends with someone who has inspected your nether end. It's a bit creepy.

 

[TigerLilea]

It actually doesn't surprise me today that people would do that, especially the younger generations. Back when I was a kid we always called adults by Mr. or Mrs. We never called them by their first name, whereas today young kids are on a first name basis with everyone.

 

[Shadrach Loom]

It’s very easy to talk to people one-on-one, as most conversations with clinicians go, without using their name, and so titles can be avoided.

And there’s nothing that jars in referring to other doctors, when speaking to a doctor, as Dr Soandso.

But it feels more uncomfortable referring to a surgeon as Mrs or Mr Soandso. I wouldn’t say Mr in any other personal or professional contexts, and also it’s absurd that the docs who happen to specialise in cutting people up (and who tend to be extremely vague about wound care, or post-operative complications) demand that extra marker of respect.

 

[Samuel]

i think the medical industry needs to focus less on authority over the customer and more on medicine. i'd like to see an arrogance-ectomy of the entire industry. honorifics are ok if yours is used also.

 

[TigerLilea]

But it feels more uncomfortable referring to a surgeon as Mrs or Mr Soandso. I wouldn’t say Mr in any other personal or professional contexts, and also it’s absurd that the docs who happen to specialise in cutting people up (and who tend to be extremely vague about wound care, or post-operative complications) demand that extra marker of respect.

I think that is an English thing to call specialists "Mr". Here in Canada a doctor is a Dr. no matter their position or seniority.

 

[SNT Gatchaman]

Surgeons are often "Mr.", historically from the Guild of Barber-Surgeons, who did not originally have an academic doctorate, unlike physicians. In time as surgical skills and capabilities increased from chopping either limbs or hair, and the surgical RCs separated off, this became a point of pride.

Today, many of the surgeons I work with prefer "Dr". We have many female surgeons and they vary between "Dr", "Mrs", "Ms" and there's even a "Miss". Many use first names, though for some reason ortho seem to prefer surnames only, which always seems a bit boarding school to me.

Many surgeons and doctors I work with are also entirely comfortable with first names with patients, but then most of our patients are under the age of 15. However, I have to say I generally did the same in adult private practice. Our junior docs, technical, nursing, admin, orderly staff are all on first name terms with us. That won't be universal for all depts of course, but smooths team functioning and comes into its own when the proverbial hits or is about to. I've seen it save lives.

I find the attitude expressed in the article outdated to say the least. Ongoing use of a title in conversation generally adds nothing meaningful and may contribute to power imbalance. What I'm saying and how I'm saying it are much more important and we're supposed to be on the same team — team patient. Now the disease, that can call me "Dr"!

 

[Jonathan Edwards]

I never thought of the use of 'Dr Edwards' as related to authority, just professional politeness, because it was exactly the same the other way around - the patient was Mr Easton, Miss Jones or Dr Savage just the same.

If patients used my first name when I was practicing it just sounded silly to me. When health workers used my first name when I was a patient I thought it showed a crass lack of interpersonal skills. If I was an inpatient and we had met several times over a period of a day or two and asked each other a bit about ourselves then both exchanging first names would be natural.

Use of first names these days I associate with the sort of interfering naive salami-style approach to personal relationships typified by psychotherapists. They can call you by your first name because they know all about people and how their feelings work so can treat them like children. It has become standard in nursing too.

 

[Midnattsol]

I hardly ever use the name of whoever I see beyond introductions, and my experience in Norway is that first name is what is common for said introductions. Sometimes title, but that would be to explain who the person is, not an honorific. I could say "Hi, I'm midnattsol and I am your dietitian". If going to a GP when I am obviously seing the GP that would be unnecessary.

Some hospitals only require first name on employee cards and it would be natural for patients to use the name they can read of the card (I think there have been some cases of patients stalking hospital staff so by providing only the first name this is made a bit more difficult).