Just finished residency... do I call attendings by their first name?

[unleash500]

So I just finished residency, and am working as a hospitalist at my same training program. I have called my attendings by Dr. ____ for the past three years and the idea of calling them by their first name feels awkward. Do I start calling all the physicians by their first name now? I bet the neurosurgeons will still think I am a resident and will balk if I call them by their first name. Anyone else with this struggle or am I just overthinking things?

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[rokshana]

So I just finished residency, and am working as a hospitalist at my same training program. I have called my attendings by Dr. ____ for the past three years and the idea of calling them by their first name feels awkward. Do I start calling all the physicians by their first name now? I bet the neurosurgeons will still think I am a resident and will balk if I call them by their first name. Anyone else with this struggle or am I just overthinking things?

Overthinking...call them whatever’s you are comfortable with...as you have more interaction with them as a peer, things will probably change.

 

[bananas85]

I always felt weird calling my attending by first name. (I come from an Asian culture) I even have a hard time calling some of my colleagues who are older by their first name. I refer to them as dr. Last name.

My American co resident started calling our program director by her first name as soon as he finished residency and took up an attending job at the institution.

So in the end do what you feel comfortable with. Won’t matter.

It doesn’t hurt to play it safe and call someone dr. Smith or whatever. Showing some extra respect never hurts. A lot of people will tell you “hey you can call me Bob , etc.” if they feel like you are being formal and that’s no longer needed

 

[mszzeta]

I have seen a senior attending introducing herself as Dr. S in front of a junior attending. I was really surprised to be honest haha

 

[jdh71]

Yes

 

[IMreshopeful]

My fellowship had a very informal atmosphere and I called most of my attendings by first name. The exception was a few attendings who were much older and more “legendary” if you will that it felt really weird to call by their first names

 

[jurassicpark]

It's your level of respect and familiarity with the individual attending, not to mention location. The obvious being, in front of patients no matter what I will call them Dr.

But in a more private setting, it took me years to call those who were my attendings as a resident by their first name. Took many trips to the bar, and realizing screaming "Dr. ___ get your keister over here and cover me" during games of Call of Duty was no longer going to work.

Same things with attendings I never worked with before. Treat them with utmost respect first, then after we got drunk a few times together, first name basis. If they don't drink, I can't help you then.

 

[NotAProgDirector]

This is extremely culture dependent. If you're not certain and worried about it, just ask. Chances are, you're the only one who is worried about this.

 

[IM2GI]

If I don't know someone and the contact is in a professional setting, I will say Dr. so and so. That will typically prompt them to say call me Joe Blow.

To me it's not worth the aggravation of unknowingly bothering the 10% of people that get upset about titles and ego. There are hospitalists that call consults and introduce themselves as Doctor, so clearly it matters to them.

 

[DrSnips]

If I don't know someone and the contact is in a professional setting, I will say Dr. so and so. That will typically prompt them to say call me Joe Blow.

To me it's not worth the aggravation of unknowingly bothering the 10% of people that get upset about titles and ego. There are hospitalists that call consults and introduce themselves as Doctor, so clearly it matters to them.

I had a July surgery intern call me and introduce himself as Dr. X. I was initially thinking WTF, but then I was like, the guy just graduated... I'll let him have his moment before the pain of doing a gen surg residency sets in.

 

[IMreshopeful]

I had a July surgery intern call me and introduce himself as Dr. X. I was initially thinking WTF, but then I was like, the guy just graduated... I'll let him have his moment before the pain of doing a gen surg residency sets in.

This happened to me yesterday but the person in question was a second year resident and IMG who was previously an attending in his home country. I let it go but this is the kind of stuff that rubs folks the wrong way

 

[rokshana]

This happened to me yesterday but the person in question was a second year resident and IMG who was previously an attending in his home country. I let it go but this is the kind of stuff that rubs folks the wrong way

I’ve found this to be fairly common and it’s probably because they are more formal and no one calls anyone by their 1st name...but someone should they them know that here we introduce ourselves by our first and last name.

 

[dggopal]

I mean I am totally not about titles but during residency I started of by saying "this is Dr. ...." on the phone to people I didn't know, including nurses. I realized it was awkward for everyone including me. But when I switch to just using my name it became even more stupid because, then, they would say "okay.... so who are you... a patient family member? do you have a security code?" and we would have to go through the same deal every time.

Now my introduction is a sort of hybrid of the two formats "This is blah, the hospitalist caring for blah" But either way i still think its awkward.

 

[IM-2019]

I had a July surgery intern call me and introduce himself as Dr. X. I was initially thinking WTF, but then I was like, the guy just graduated... I'll let him have his moment before the pain of doing a gen surg residency sets in.

I had the opposite issue in July of using first name only which was confusing everyone I called, and was told to start referring to myself as Dr.LastName more often by my team. Since then I started using either Dr. LastName when calling back nursing or using my full name on the phone with everyone else, since Dr. LastName with other residents/attendings would seem weird to me.

 

[DrSnips]

I had the opposite issue in July of using first name only which was confusing everyone I called, and was told to start referring to myself as Dr.LastName more often by my team. Since then I started using either Dr. LastName when calling back nursing or using my full name on the phone with everyone else, since Dr. LastName with other residents/attendings would seem weird to me.

I almost never call myself Dr. when speaking with anyone other than patients. I usually just call myself by my full name over the phone so that people will know who it is, because, like you, my first name is very common.

 

[wholeheartedly]

I had the opposite issue in July of using first name only which was confusing everyone I called, and was told to start referring to myself as Dr.LastName more often by my team. Since then I started using either Dr. LastName when calling back nursing or using my full name on the phone with everyone else, since Dr. LastName with other residents/attendings would seem weird to me.

From the allied health staff side of things at a big teaching hospital, it can definitely be hard to figure out who the heckwe're talking talking to, so I always found it helpful when they said this is Joe the pathology resident or Dr. Lastname because that's what I see on orders. We got calls from so many different people in so many roles that helped clarify things quite a bit.

As an educator, I also always called the brand new residents Dr. Lastname even if they didn't expect it. They aren't used to being called Dr. and it seemed to emphasize the importance of their new role a bit, make them kinda stand up straighter type of thing.

 

[ShiShiMD]

This is extremely culture dependent. If you're not certain and worried about it, just ask. Chances are, you're the only one who is worried about this.

Very true, I actually ask the residents to call me by the first name and I always call my supervisor/COM/CEO/CTO/Chair by the title of Dr and they always say Please call me Mike, or Will, or Nick

 

[Mad Jack]

I always felt weird calling my attending by first name. (I come from an Asian culture) I even have a hard time calling some of my colleagues who are older by their first name. I refer to them as dr. Last name.

My American co resident started calling our program director by her first name as soon as he finished residency and took up an attending job at the institution.

So in the end do what you feel comfortable with. Won’t matter.

It doesn’t hurt to play it safe and call someone dr. Smith or whatever. Showing some extra respect never hurts. A lot of people will tell you “hey you can call me Bob , etc.” if they feel like you are being formal and that’s no longer needed

I feel like it'd be weird for me to call any of my major program faculty by anything other than Dr. Lastname. Other doctors outside of my program I'd be much more comfortable calling on a first name basis post graduation