EDITOR'S NOTE

Don't call me doctor

August 20, 1998

How do we explain that the highest compliment isn’t being called a physician?

Recently, "ABC News Nightline" aired a segment called "Street Doctors." It focused on a physician and several nurses who work with street people in Boston, giving day-to-day primary care, referrals to addiction services and free meals, and a wide range of other support.

Barbara Matthews Blanton, MS, RN, a clinical instructor at Texas Woman’s University in Dallas, wrote the producer to complain about the show’s title. "Why on earth did you call the piece ‘Street Doctors?’ " she asked. In addition to the impressive physician, "there were also three or four nurses with whom you actually spent more time … If I sound a little irritated, it is because I have spent a lifetime trying to get folks to understand that nurses give essential care, independent of physicians … and collaboratively with physicians. However, we continue to be minimized in subtle ways, like the title of your show, and it does get exasperating."

Nightline’s Dan Marks wrote back an apology. "You raise a good point. Thank you for your comment. I think that we meant doctors in the broadest sense."

Some people probably see being called a doctor as a big compliment, especially if they view health care as a hierarchy in which physicians are at the top. In our society, doctor is considered a respected term for a learned person. But most nurses and allied health professionals see medicine as a very distinct kind of work. It makes about as much sense to call a nurse a "street doctor" as it would to call a lawyer an airline pilot or a respiratory therapist a pharmacist.

Blanton says there was a time, early in her career, when she saw herself as a sort of junior doctor. But gradually she grew to understand the innate differences between the health disciplines. The fault, if any, lies in our own practice and our inability to express to the public what exactly we do, she says. Blanton tells her students that if people don’t understand nursing, we’re either not practicing right or not telling people what it is we’re doing for them.

It takes constant education. A few weeks ago, I gave my father some practical tips on dealing with a bad summer cold. Thanking me for my help, he told me I was "the best doctor around." I quickly corrected him. Just because I’m in health care, it doesn’t mean I want to be thought of as a doctor. Even by my dad.

What do you think?

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