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Random question- do you sign your name with "M.D." or "D.O." at the end, or does this make one look like a giant tool?
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- Thread starter acrolentiginous
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Depends on what you're signing...
Prescriptions & work-related stuff = yes
Take-out receipts = no
The former is expected, the latter would be quite tool-ish.
Cheers!
-d
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I personaly never put MD behind my name. I do not even let the nurses call me "Doctor". I just tell everyone in the office to just call me by my nick-name. No formalities. I am just a simple person. The only time I put MD behind my name is when I have to write an offical letter for the patient.
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Does the same go for medical students rotating on your service? I dont think i will ever be comfortabe calling my attending by their firstame or nickname no matter how cool they are. Then again, i'm ex military so rank recognition is huge for me
I am not an academic physician, but if and when medical students rotate in the office, they usually call all physicians by doctor so and so. The office staff are somehow different. It depends on the individual physician. I personaly do not like to be called "doctor", but there are some who do and there is nothing wrong with that. It is just a personal preference. When I was a resident, we used to call most (but not all) of our attendings by their last name only. Some allowed us to do so, some did not like it.
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They call you by your nickname? So when nurses need to clarify orders, they ask "hey Leukocyte, what fluids do you want on this guy?"
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My signature is so illegible, I don't think it matters either way.
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I usually do the illegible scrawl signature followed by my name with MD written after...
The only time I ever signed MD after my name in a non-medical context (shortly after graduation, doing it for kicks)... the pen promptly exploded. I took that as a karmic *****-slap that I probably shouldn't do it regularly.
The only time I ever signed MD after my name in a non-medical context (shortly after graduation, doing it for kicks)... the pen promptly exploded. I took that as a karmic *****-slap that I probably shouldn't do it regularly.
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what's the reason so many MDs consciously have an illegibile signature?
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My signature looks the way it does because I can do it in about 1 second. It would take longer if I wanted it to look nice. Plus, at most places I have been all you need to do to make it a legal signature is include your doctor ID number. Since I can sign and add the number in less time it would take to write my name and signature out neatly (the other option they give) I have gotten used to doing that. I never sign MD after my name. On scripts it isn't really needed because they either recognize your name and know what you are anyway, or you need to include your license number, which will also tell them. If it is a work excuse or something, I figure the from line saying Dr. dpmd is sufficient.
I am ex military so using first names for my superiors isn't comfortable. I was in the reserves so we weren't as formal-it was typically rank plus last name with officers or a direct supervisor, but last name alone for coworkers even if they were different ranks (enlisted only). Socially, it was basically just last name or an occasional nickname.
Now, when speaking about an attending I will just use their last name, but if I am calling them I use Dr (in person I may or may not use their name depending on how I show up). my junior residents and students often use my last name, but I tell them they can use my first name if they want. They only call me Dr. in front of patients (or maybe sometimes in front of attendings). Ancillary staff calls me Dr. unless they know me and realize I am ok with just my last name (the ICU nurses have a variety of nicknames they call me because we are pretty close and we hang out socially, although in front attendings they tend to stick with last name and always add the Dr. in front of patients). I do answer phone calls as Dr dpmd, but that is more so they know it is ok that I am telling them to do stuff.
I am ex military so using first names for my superiors isn't comfortable. I was in the reserves so we weren't as formal-it was typically rank plus last name with officers or a direct supervisor, but last name alone for coworkers even if they were different ranks (enlisted only). Socially, it was basically just last name or an occasional nickname.
Now, when speaking about an attending I will just use their last name, but if I am calling them I use Dr (in person I may or may not use their name depending on how I show up). my junior residents and students often use my last name, but I tell them they can use my first name if they want. They only call me Dr. in front of patients (or maybe sometimes in front of attendings). Ancillary staff calls me Dr. unless they know me and realize I am ok with just my last name (the ICU nurses have a variety of nicknames they call me because we are pretty close and we hang out socially, although in front attendings they tend to stick with last name and always add the Dr. in front of patients). I do answer phone calls as Dr dpmd, but that is more so they know it is ok that I am telling them to do stuff.
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Because we're usually rushed, and have a ton of patients to see, and have to move fast from one to the next. There's no time for an elegant signature.
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Plausible deniability.
Because you sign it a million times a year and it saves time. If you can cut one second off of your signature time, that will save you one million seconds per year! You can use those million seconds to watch like 500 episodes of south park.
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To try to make it hard to forge.
4
45408
This.
Although I sign my name at work about 50 times per day, and it's relatively infrequent that I sign anything else, so I have to consciously remind myself not to put MD at the end.
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I feel the same way, I always have about people in superior positions, be it physicians, teachers, or even just friends' parents. I worked with the same doctor for several months during third and fourth year and after the first month or so, she always identified herself by her first name when we talked on the phone or emailed. As awesome as she was, and regardless of the fact that we hung out several times outside of work, I never felt comfortable calling her by her first name. Most of the time I just ended up looking directly at her to address her so I didn't have to use any name at all. Maybe I'm weird, but I actually felt relieved when she gave me her cell number so I wouldn't have to address her by name in a text message.
I'm glad to know I'm not the only one like this, even though I'm not ex-military or anything of that nature. I guess I'm big on boundaries and worry too much about crossing them, even if the person seems to have made it abundantly clear that I should be calling them by their first name. Once I start using one name, it's just so hard to switch.
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To the OP, i never write MD after my name, but my intern year I got so used to signing my name and then pager number after it that a few times i did catch myself signing a credit card receipt and putting my pager ID after it.
To the above poster and a few others, I personally feel that my patients should call me Dr. Rocurworld, and no one else should. Nurses, techs, janitors, students, or whomever I tell to call me by my first name. We are all part of the same team. I also dislike calling attendings by their last name. I am a licensed physician. I completed medical school and have an MD. I get it, im still in training, but i feel that my attendings and I are close enough to colleagues that I shouldnt adress them by "Dr." As ive gotten farther along in residency, I have started calling more attendings by their first names. Typically though, its the attendings like the one mentioned above. If you always say "Hi its (insert first name here)" when they call, im going to start calling them that. Sometimes i ask first if its ok, sometimes not.
