comebacks for condescending/overly familiar patients

[not-on-fire]

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I have only had two patients/family members insist on calling me by my first name without being asked since I became an attending. The first ended up pretty much demanding that I lie to get disability and the second just gave me an eery feeling so I nipped it in bud. Maybe I am defensive about it, but I found it odd and a little insulting when he referred to the male doctor on the case as Dr. Y and then pointedly called me by my first name (after asking a series of hostile questions and after, when he asked what my name was again, I showed him my badge and said "Dr. X."). So I said, as sweetly and gently as I could, that, I would appreciate it if he could call me Dr. X. He looked stunned. He complied. But I felt really awful about it afterward. I want to be assertive, but somehow I still felt bad. It's not about the title per se - I prefer first name with all the other medical team members. What to do? Is it really ok to just let patients run over you? If you give them an inch, won't they keep going?

 

[pgg]

Going around telling patients to call you doctor every time someone makes a mockery of you or your intelligence does nothing positive for you or the patient, and may make you look pretty lame/needy in front of your colleagues.

Like they say in the military ...

If you have to remind people that you're in command, you're not.

 

[hrandani]

Couldn't tell you why but I would never in a million years insist people call me Dr.

I think it has a lot to do with the whole earning respect vs demanding it paradigm. However I guess I can see where some of the girls are coming from. As a guy when I walk into the room people don't really think it's the janitor talking to them about their lab results.

 

[235750]

I think it has a lot to do with the whole earning respect...However I guess I can see where some of the girls are coming from.

It's hard to grasp subtle humor on SDN posts, but I'd wager that this use of the word 'girl' was not a purposeful attempt at irony

 

[sideways]

Like they say in the military ...

If you have to remind people that you're in command, you're not.

So true.

 

[Long Dong]