What Do We Call Nurses With Doctorates? And Other Quality Issues

Main Category: Nursing / Midwifery
Also Included In: Primary Care / General Practice;  Litigation / Medical Malpractice
Article Date: 19 Aug 2010 - 5:00 PDT

Current ratings for:
'What Do We Call Nurses With Doctorates? And Other Quality Issues'

Patient / Public:5 stars

5 (3 votes)

Healthcare Prof:2 stars

2 (2 votes)

Article opinions: 1 posts

The Philadelphia Inquirer/Kansas City Star: "Most nurse practitioners still have master's degrees, but nursing schools want the doctor of nursing practice degree to be the entry-level degree for advanced-practice nurses by 2015. Enrollment in those programs nationally jumped from 70 in 2002 to more than 5,000 last year." The titles of nurses and how they interact with academic degrees are causing some confusion among patients and resentment from doctors. "Most newly graduating physical therapists now have doctorates, too. Pharmacists and psychologists already made that move. Audiologists, physician assistants, and occupational therapists can also get doctorates. As nonphysicians with doctorates proliferate, the potential for confusion has grown, and physicians aren't happy about it. A 2008 survey by the American Medical Association found that 38 percent of patients believed that nurses with doctorates were medical doctors." The AMA wants legislation in states that requires medical professionals to wear badges to spell out credentials, as is law in Oklahoma, Arizona, Florida and Illinois. "People with doctorates in other fields said they generally don't want to call themselves doctors around patients, but they reserve the right to do so" (Burling, 8/17).

In the meantime, a study says that when doctors admit mistakes, fewer malpractice suits are filed, HealthDay/Bloomberg Businessweek reports. "In 2001, University of Michigan Health System launched a program encouraging health workers to report medical mistakes. The program included a procedure for telling patients and their families about errors; explaining who made the error, how it occurred and what steps were taken to prevent a similar mistake in the future; making a sincere apology to the patient or their family; and offering fair compensation for harm when at fault. The result was a reduction in the number of lawsuits and other compensation claims, a faster resolution of disputes and lowered legal costs overall" (Goodwin, 8/17).

This information was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with kind permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives and sign up for email delivery at kaiserhealthnews.org.

© Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.



Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release.
Visit our nursing / midwifery section for the latest news on this subject.
There are no references listed for this article.
Please use one of the following formats to cite this article in your essay, paper or report:

MLA
Kaiser. "What Do We Call Nurses With Doctorates? And Other Quality Issues." Medical News Today. MediLexicon, Intl., 19 Aug. 2010. Web.
25 May. 2012. <http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/198268.php>
APA
Kaiser. (2010, August 19). "What Do We Call Nurses With Doctorates? And Other Quality Issues." Medical News Today. Retrieved from
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/198268.php.

Please note: If no author information is provided, the source is cited instead.


Visitor Opinions (latest shown first)

doctor who - address people by their rank

posted by Dweeks,MD on 19 Aug 2010 at 7:05 am

Call the individual by their rank as deserved.

| post followup | alert a moderator |


Add Your Opinion On This Article

'What Do We Call Nurses With Doctorates? And Other Quality Issues'

Please note that we publish your name, but we do not publish your email address. It is only used to let you know when your message is published. We do not use it for any other purpose. Please see our privacy policy for more information.

If you write about specific medications or operations, please do not name health care professionals by name.

All opinions are moderated before being included (to stop spam)

Your Name:*
E-mail Address:*
Your Opinion Title:*
Opinion:*
This is to help prevent SPAM submissions. Please enter the words exactly as they appear, including capital letters and punctuation.*

* Fields marked with a * need to be filled in before you hit the submit button.

Contact Our News Editors

For any corrections of factual information, or to contact the editors please use our feedback form.

Please send any medical news or health news press releases to:

Note: Any medical information published on this website is not intended as a substitute for informed medical advice and you should not take any action before consulting with a health care professional. For more information, please read our terms and conditions.


Nursing / Midwifery

How To Become A Family Nurse Practitioner Online

If you are a licensed registered nurse you may well be able to enroll in a new online Master of Science in Nursing degree program with a strong focus in Family Nurse Practitioner. Read more...

Most Popular Articles



Follow Our Nursing News On Twitter

Follow Us On Twitter
Get the latest news for this category delivered straight to your Twitter account. Simply visit our Nursing / Midwifery Twitter account and select the 'follow' option.



View list of all 'What Is...' articles »