D
drkingdingaling
As a resident doctor is your official title resident doctor or are you called by what specialty you're in. for example If im doing a pediatric residency am I a pediatrician?
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You're a "whatever"-in-training. There are many ways to skirt around this, though; my business card just says, "Emergency Medicine".
However, it's also the "state of mind" thing; ipso facto, if the PGY-II is scrubbing on your case, and he says, "I'm one of the surgeons who will be operating", that is 100% true. In the middle of a peds residency in a high-volume program (or sometime during the track of any training program, for that matter), you will say, "We're the pediatricians that will be taking care of your child (when you develop the confidence to carry both yourself, and your junior partner, even if your junior has only been in the program 4 or 6 months)".
Different hospitals may have different policies in-house (eg, ALL housestaff, regardless of specialty, are "house officers", not "surgery residents", "IM residents", etc.), but you have to subdivide for the rest of the world.
However, it's also the "state of mind" thing; ipso facto, if the PGY-II is scrubbing on your case, and he says, "I'm one of the surgeons who will be operating", that is 100% true. In the middle of a peds residency in a high-volume program (or sometime during the track of any training program, for that matter), you will say, "We're the pediatricians that will be taking care of your child (when you develop the confidence to carry both yourself, and your junior partner, even if your junior has only been in the program 4 or 6 months)".
Different hospitals may have different policies in-house (eg, ALL housestaff, regardless of specialty, are "house officers", not "surgery residents", "IM residents", etc.), but you have to subdivide for the rest of the world.
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As Apollyon notes, it depends on the hospital. Our name badges, simply have our names, MD/DO and Department Name. There is no difference for residents vs faculty.
I tend to introduce myself as "Dr. Cox, one of the surgeons who will be working with Dr. X (the attending - since they tend to know him/her) today (if an OP OR case)/during your admission" or "Dr. Cox, the surgery doctor in-house/on call tonight" (when called down to the ER to see a new patient). I rarely introduce myself specifically as a resident unless the patient is in the medical field - I've found that the general public doesn't know the difference and often think residents haven't finished medical school, even if I introduce myself as Doctor. Obviously if the patient asks about my training, I'll explain it
I tend to introduce myself as "Dr. Cox, one of the surgeons who will be working with Dr. X (the attending - since they tend to know him/her) today (if an OP OR case)/during your admission" or "Dr. Cox, the surgery doctor in-house/on call tonight" (when called down to the ER to see a new patient). I rarely introduce myself specifically as a resident unless the patient is in the medical field - I've found that the general public doesn't know the difference and often think residents haven't finished medical school, even if I introduce myself as Doctor. Obviously if the patient asks about my training, I'll explain it
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or they think any female working in the hospital (no matter that you introduce your self as a doctor/surgeon) is a nurse....grrrrrr
(and conversly, any male, even the ED tech, is a doctor..double grrrrr!)
(and conversly, any male, even the ED tech, is a doctor..double grrrrr!)
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LOL. Yep, that's about right. Frustrating, especially when you've already introduced yourself as Doctor.
Mostly bothers me when its young people who do that - seems like they would have figured out that not all females in medicine are nurses.
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that has happened to me also. "hey nurse, when do you think i'll be getting my medicine?" the first time it caught me by surprise and i corrected the patient, telling him that i was a doctor not a nurse. when it happened again with other patients, i just try to remember this - i know who i am, a doctor, and the only thing that matters is that i'm taking good care of the patient. one of my patients actually called me a nurse and then remembered that i was a doctor - then he was like, "gosh, you look too young to be a doctor, i hope you weren't offended". i wasn't. i'm a 23 y.o. doctor and proud of it!
