Reply To: Bills restricting or banning nurses with doctorate degrees from using “doctor”

[Hassan]

The controversy about the use of “Doctor” as a title was really surprising when I started my DNP journey, I never knew we really had the option to us this title. In the past I have seen people from various fields of study use the title, though never really felt anyway about it. I do remember the origin of the word literally means to teach in Latin, which I feel is often overlooked. The use of the word meant a learned person, and people respected a person who took the time to max out on all the knowledge they could. The term has literally no indication of being “owned” by medicine, and this seriously needs to be considered in all this back and forth. The knowledge we attain on the road to terminal degrees should be recognized, though I wanna stress ego needs to be left out of it. I am proud to be a nurse, and while I may eventually get my DNP the title of doctor for me is little but a formality. I will admit I am much more laid back with titles and labels personally, but if you feel people should call you doctor I support you! I have always enjoyed the thought of being called an NP, but again that is just me.