I hate being called "nurse"!!!

[Fuji Girl]

No offense to nurses, of course. The world needs more good nurses. But not ALL medical women are nurses!

I was riding on the lake path this evening, when I noticed a group of people collected up ahead. As I slowed down, I saw a young woman lying on the ground. She was all scratched up with blood all over her face, she was dazed and completely disoriented. I introduced myself to her, told her I was a doctor, and did a quick exam. Tested her reflexes, looked into her pupils, looked into her mouth, checked her ribs for fracture, tested the strength in her extremities, stabilized her neck, checked her pulse, assessed her mental status, reassured her that her teeth were all still in her mouth, etc. From what I could gather from the crowd, she had been running and collided with a cyclist (who was still at the scene, very concerned). The girl was bad off - she hit her head pretty hard.

When the paramedics got there, I started to give them a history, when one of them asked me "Are you a nurse?" I said no, I'm a doctor. After that, THEY STOPPED LISTENING TO ME. In fact, they completely ignored me and walked away to check out the patient on their own. I couldn't believe it. In fact, I thought I was imagining it, until 2 girls thanked me for taking charge of the situation and told me they thought the paramedics were jack-a*ses for not even listening to me.

I did not obtain this education (4 yrs of med school + 5 yrs of residency + 2 yrs of fellowship) to be called nurse and ignored by some punk-a*s SOBs who think they're better than me just because I have an 46,XX karyotype. Ooo, that makes me so mad!

[light_sabe_r]

I can't believe idiots like that still exist in this day and age.

I'm a medical researcher. And yet people assume that I must be a nurse because I work at a hospital. Honestly I don't know the first thing about treatments (diagnosis I know how from my degree) BUT if you even need a graft come and see me and I'll grow you some of your own skin or fat.

Like Fuji Girl says, Nothing against nurses. In fact without nurses I couldn't do ANY of my project. They're wonderful people who wade through all sorts of nasty stuff to earn a living. PLUS THEY CARE. I'm just sick of the assumption that a girl with medical knowledge and interests must be nurses!

So yeah. The fact the Paramedics ignored you is just bogus. Make a complaint to your State's emergency services department.

[Lise]

fuji--I am so sorry those morons ignored you. I cannot imagine why they would disregard the input of a doc. I am seriously baffled. What, they didn't believe that you were a doc? Wierd. You were true to your training and the spirit of your profession when you stopped to render aid. I hope the girl is OK. Just out of curiousity--was it on the north branch? If so, it will further reinforce my avoidance of that area.

FWIW, I hate being called "nurse", too. And I am a nurse. I am a Certified Nurse-Midwife. I went to nursing school so I could go on for the further training/education/certification/licensure to be a midwife. Not so I could be a nurse. For me, the nursing training is a coincidence of the certification requirements in this country. For me, the problem is that there is no title for "Midwife" in this country. You are Dr. Fuji. I am .... Ms. H. No honorific. So the hispanic pts call me "doctora", and I stopped correcting them long ago. One of the nurses at work greets me, "Hello, doctor", and I remind her I'm not a doctor, and she says, "well, you should be called doctor", and I say, "but I'd have to go back to school for too long" and we laugh... and yet, it's annoying. People want to respect me, but have no title. They don't know I'm grinding my teeth when I'm called "Nurse".

I'm still shaking my head over the paramedics. You know they would've been reeeeal attentive if you were a guy. Dr. Guy. Blech on them.

[velogirl]

I crack up at something in the fitness industry -- coaches who call themselve "Coach Bob" or "Coach Tim" or "Coach Dan." WTF. I'm a full-time coach -- I do this for a living -- and I don't call myself Coach Lorri. I'm also an MBA (and a BFA). Maybe I should be Coach Lorri, BFA, MBA.....

In the coaching industry, it's a marketing tool, but folks who know me know I'm a coach. Sheesh!


Lorri (who btw calls her doctors by their first names)

[velogirl]

Even funnier to me are volunteer or hobbyist coaches who use the title coach. You know, someone who has a full-time job as an engineer or an accountant but volunteers with some organization (like TnT or JDRA or whatever). No training, no certification, no education......just a title.

</rant>

[KnottedYet]

I don't have a title. Bummer. I'm just an assistant. What drives me nuts is getting asked all the time if I'm a student, or if I'm ever gonna finish school.

Um, I have a complete degree. In fact, I have 3 of them. I'm done. This is it.

Until I go to grad school to be a librarian because I'm getting so burned out on health care and being "just" an assistant. (I've already spent 9 years in college... do I really want to spend 3 more?)

[Nanci]

You have a what??? (46,XX karyotype)

Maybe they thought, since you were an MD, then everything was under control and they could go ahead do their assessment on a presumably stable pt?

I'm a tech. Patients always assume I'm either a doctor or a nurse or a transporter!!

But in the south, everyone is addressed by Mr./Miss plus their first name. Our friends' kids call us Miss Nanci and Mr. BF. I call patients Miss or Mr. Last Name (first name is too familiar to me. There is no Ms. down here). Older people, like my supervisor, (who is a black minister in his other life!) call the techs Miss Nanci and Mr. Ken.

I call the residents by their first names, but the attendings by Dr. So and So. Unless I'm interrupting the resident with a patient, then I try to call them Dr. So and So. But it sounds funny!

[betagirl]

You have a what??? (46,XX karyotype)

46,XX karyotype = woman in chromosome speak.

Fuji, that sucks. My first reaction was "Gee a crash on the path? What a surprise " It was very cool of you to stop and help, and well the paramedics can go get bent. I can see how that would get you steamed. Maybe they watch too much Dennis Leary in Rescue Me

To add to the titles rant, I'm in school for clinical psychology which has this odd air of mystery to it to a lot of people. I don't know how many have asked me if I'm reading their mind, assessing them every time I see them, if that's the same thing as a psychiatrist (no offense to doctors ), and just a general change in facial expression that I'm up to no good half the time when I disclose what I do. Even people I've known literally all my life acted goofy around me when I first told them I was in school again. Maybe that's how they cope with having someone who's trained to figure out people's inner workings, but that's psych speak. Maybe they're just being silly/naive and need to get over it

[btchance]

Oh, Fuji girl, I'm so sorry. For someone who works in the medical profession to do that, well, I just don't understand it. For what it's worth, I'm a medical student, and it seems like when I go into a patients room whether I'm by myself or with another doctor, almost half the epatients are convinced I'm a nurse in training at some point, with a few of them basically refusing to be corrected. And a lot of these are women!! Now, I have no desire to be called doctor as I'm not one yet, and I have come to love many of the nurses I'm working with (they are invaluable), but still, I would like people to realize which degree I'm working on. Oh, and it happened yesterday with an educated lady in her 30s.

[Flatlander]

This post makes me smile--the problem is familiar to me.

I'm a college professor with a PhD. When I am introduced, along with male colleagues, to a group of students, they invariably address the males as "Dr. So and So," while they address me as "Mrs. Tomlinson." This implies, of course, that it is expected that a man would have a PhD, but not a woman. In doing this, we also unconsciously elevate the relative authority of the man over the woman in the classroom.

For along time this made me angry. Recently, however, I decided to treat it as a teaching moment. I now start the first day of classes by introducing myself (I always did that before; the students just didn't "hear" the "Dr." part). Now, however, I go on to tell them about being addressed as Mrs while my male colleagues are more approprietly addressed. They are always shocked and dismayed to hear this (even though they would prob. do the same if I hadn't pointed it out ). Then I go on to further explain that this is a reflection of how we place genders in roles, even when we're aren't aware of it, and that by insisting that they address me as Dr. T--, I am implanting the idea in the female students' heads that yes, they, too, are capable of earning a PhD. Further, since this is not about "I've got a PhD so I'm more special than you," I tell them, once they graduate and we are no longer in a teacher/student relationship, they are free to address me as "Susan."

To me, this is not about "titles," nor is it about whether one profession more "special" than another. It is about what we expect from gender roles and relative authority/ability.

[Faust]

ok ok I have to flip the coin here. BTW thanks Dr. Fuji for the props to the nurses I am a nurse and while I was working in a pre-op clinic I would enter the room "Hi are you Mr. Smith?" the cold snotty response would sometimes be "I'm DR Smith." OOOOkaaay hi Dr. SOB I mean Smith. (Only later to find out most of these doctors were Phd's or vets.) I worked with about 25 doctors and always called them by their first name. Maybe it was because they were anesthesiologist and they gave up a long time trying to convince people that they were real doctors.
Also, there is a serious gender problem in medicine. Along side doctors we would have about four residents working, and on the days when it was an all female staff the patients would always ask "But when am I gonna see a doctor" ... Hello! You just saw one!

[Flatlander]

ok ok I have to flip the coin here. BTW thanks Dr. Fuji for the props to the nurses I am a nurse and while I was working in a pre-op clinic I would enter the room "Hi are you Mr. Smith?" the cold snotty response would sometimes be "I'm DR Smith." OOOOkaaay hi Dr. SOB I mean Smith. (Only later to find out most of these doctors were Phd's or vets.) I worked with about 25 doctors and always called them by their first name. Maybe it was because they were anesthesiologist and they gave up a long time trying to convince people that they were real doctors.
Also, there is a serious gender problem in medicine. Along side doctors we would have about four residents working, and on the days when it was an all female staff the patients would always ask "But when am I gonna see a doctor" ... Hello! You just saw one!

This makes me smile, too. Most of my friends who have PhDs rarely introduce themselves as "Dr." outside the classroom. Again, it's not about the title.

I'm baffled as to why anyone would use a title--any title--outside of a professional situation...after all, who would care?

[wannaduacentury]

Hi Fuji girl. When I was growing up, my parents and I were in the fire dept and they were state lic EMT's. There was one time at a picnic where someone collapsed and cpr had to be done and there were 2 md's on the scene as well. It has always been customary that the md's had the say so and the emt's that came w/ the ambulance took their directions very carefully. If someone has more training above a EMT or paramadic rank, the nurse, dr whichever has the say so on what's best for that patient. and the EMT/paramedic should always defer to them. I can't believe those guys treated you that way. If I were there, I would've helped you set them straight. I hope the jogger is ok.

[Nanci]

Where I work, they always make a big deal out of a pt being an MD. The nurse/whoever is always sure to specify it's _DR_ Smith, not Mr. Smith. I just had a patient the other day that I addressed as Miss Smith correct me and say "It's _Doctor_ Smith." Oh, what kind of physician are you? It was something weird, like biology!!! Whatever... Just minutes ago, my pt called for me- "Hey Nurse!!" They don't know.

[velogirl]

To add to the titles rant, I'm in school for clinical psychology which has this odd air of mystery to it to a lot of people....Maybe that's how they cope with having someone who's trained to figure out people's inner workings.

I totally forgot about this. I used to date a guy who was a sex therapist. Needless to say, I felt self-conscious about our own physical relationship, enough so that I ended the relationship!