do you go by first name or dr. ____ with staff?

[jamesearlejones]

---

Members don't see this ad.

hi all,

i'm a relatively recent residency graduate and now an attending at a different institution. in residency, everyone was on a first name basis with everyone else, including the attendings. at my new place, everybody refers to me as dr. jones, including many of the other attendings. i much prefer a first name basis amongst colleagues and i've told several people to call me by my first name but they seem reluctant to. i think part of this stems from the fact that many of the other attendings are older, so are probably more "old school" so to speak. i don't want to upset the apple cart too much, but how reasonable do you think it is for me to continue gently reminding folks that they can call me by my first name?

 

[OldPsychDoc]

hi all,

i'm a relatively recent residency graduate and now an attending at a different institution. in residency, everyone was on a first name basis with everyone else, including the attendings. at my new place, everybody refers to me as dr. jones, including many of the other attendings. i much prefer a first name basis amongst colleagues and i've told several people to call me by my first name but they seem reluctant to. i think part of this stems from the fact that many of the other attendings are older, so are probably more "old school" so to speak. i don't want to upset the apple cart too much, but how reasonable do you think it is for me to continue gently reminding folks that they can call me by my first name?

I started working as an inpatient attending on the same floor where I'd done my MS3 clerkship. It took me 4-5 years to start feeling comfortable with calling my former attending by her first name. 😳

It's all part of "growing up"--like the first time one of your kid's friends calls you "Mister _____". It can be pretty jarring! Like "Wait a minute, that's my Dad's name!"

I find that we as attendings usually refer to one another as "Dr. Attending" at times when patients are around--e.g. "This is Dr. _____, she'll be talking with you about whether ECT might be a good treatment choice for you", whereas when we're around the conference table in a staff meeting it's more usually "Susan", "Janet", "John", etc. My social workers will call me by my first name when it's just us, but tend to revert to "Dr" when students or patients are around. Nurses almost always call me "Dr", except the nurse manager, who usually uses my first name. I'm with you--I'm not big on the honorifics of needing to be called "Doctor OPD", but I'm not going to waste time correcting people one way or another.

 

[freaker]

I always go by Dr. Lastname. I tried to use the first name basis at first, and then I realized that it just didn't go over well. You're a doctor; you've earned it. Might as well go by Dr. Whatever. It also tends to look a bit more professional around your patients, who expect to address you as Dr. Whatever.

 

[whopper]

I tell the staff they could call me by my first name if there's no patients around, but there usually is a patient around so by default they usually just call me by doctor and last name.

I still haven't gotten around to calling much older and venerated attendings by their first names. I just can't go to my fellowship PD and say "Hey Dougie boy! What's up!?!?" The guy's professionalism and genius is just on a level where I just don't feel comfortable calling him by his first name.

A few of my private practice patients, after a year or two of having them, started calling me by my first name and I didn't object. I told them they weren't supposed to do that but I wouldn't stop them. The patient-doctor relationship at that point had turned into something different than it has been with my other patients. These were very few of my patients, and were all ones where I was doing psychotherapy on the order of every month or more for more than a year, and the relationship was very intimate. I knew everything about these patients-everything. I would've even been open to having them come to my home and used the home as a office for tax deduction purposes, and I wouldn't do that with most of my patients just because sometimes you find something out about them after only months of having them that creeps you out to the degree where you'd never want them knowing where you and your family live.

(Which is another way to maximize profits-allow a few select patients you've come to know over time and trust for home-office visits, then charge yourself rent for the office, and claim it as a tax deduction).

 

[jamesearlejones]

thanks for the responses everyone. i should say that when i'm around patients or when patients are addressing me, i think it's appropriate to go by dr. jones. i was referring more to when i'm in my office or the workroom and there aren't any patients around and nursing staff, social workers, med students (or even other attendings) refer me as dr. jones. that just feels awkward and unnecessary i guess. if i wrote a note to someone (eg asking the social worker to call a family), i sign it by my first name, not dr. jones. that would just be strange. i dunno, i'm probably thinking too much about it, but that's my nature as a shrink i suppose.