I recently became Doctor, in an academic setting, but I still go by John. Some students call me that but I don't introduce myself as that or use it in email.
Doctor John - oops.....

Doctor John
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Sounds like a new toilet product

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Take a short break from ST and read my blog:
http://tri-banter.blogspot.com/

I am taking it to Shark Tank!!!

First post too, I figured he/she was hawking something.

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I miss YaHey

I worked at a university. Most professors expected to be addressed as doctor by students and colleagues but outside the academic setting they had no expectations. There is a certain formality in academic settings; for example, I referred to all of my students as Mr. or Ms. in class even if I was on a first name basis with them outside of class and likewise in class I expected to be addressed as Mr. (No PhD here). The chairman of my university's most prestigious department had a Master's but no Doctorate. Most people assumed he was a Doctor and when they referred to him as doctor he always corrected them that it was mister. I do think that sometimes people with doctorates intentionally mislead people. One of my teammates mom had a doctorate in nursing and sold Herbalive. In her Herbalife advertisements she always went by Dr. In this context a lot of people probably assumed that she was a medical doctor. At least she should of put her degree after her name (PhD?) so people would not assume she was an MD.

Calling yourself Doctor while selling Herbalife. I'd say that's pushing the envelope.

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They constantly try to escape from the darkness outside and within
Dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good T.S. Eliot

I've only read this thread from its resurrection today, so this may have been mentioned before. My brother travels a great deal around the world for his work. In North America he goes by mister, but in much of europe and asia it is expected for him to be referred to as doctor, and thought of as disrespectful for others not to refer to him as such.

I've been in chiropractic practice for about three decades and I don't even use the "Dr." title in the office all that often except by that small percentage of patients who want to use it. I prefer to be called by my first name. And I never use it outside the office at all. On the other hand, I have known some chiropractors who insist on being called "Dr." all times. I think that's an insecurity thing since we're often not regarded as being real doctors by a large segment of the population. Most people think of MD's as being the real doctors, but the title has been extended to dentists, optometrists, chiropractors, veterinarians, etc. I understand the PHD being the true doctorate degree, but still have a moment when thinking of someone with a non healthcare/science doctorate being referred to as "Dr." even if it is technically correct.

I should have reviewed this thread and realized that I had repeated myself a half dozen times before. My bad.

You just can't resist the opportunity to remind people that you're a doctor, can you? :)

Things get tricky when dealing with different kinds of doctors. I worked with some Russian physicists and engineers. My university considered Russian terminal degrees to be above a masters degree but below a doctorate. They went on a case-by-case basis recognizing some as master's and others as doctorates. Naturally the Russian scholars who were only considered to have master's degrees were pretty resentful. In some ways a MD can be seen as below a PhD. MDs have 6 years of schooling while PhDs have 8. It is possible to get a PharmD in 5 years so it is probably the easiest real (excluding diploma mill) doctorate.
I actually considered getting a diploma mill doctorate. I found a 1 year doctor of divinity program that requires you to read a handful of books then pass an exam then you get your suitable for framing diploma. The reading list was all books that looked interesting to me and I can't imagine the exam would be terribly hard. The university was even accredited but I suspect the accreditation board was was staffed by the same people as the "university."

There are far more important criteria. Like would you pay somebody to take your pager. Or like have you even been awoken at 2 am for something really important (pink) like an expected death at the nursing home. "Will the patients condition be any different at 7am?." Or an insomniac patient. "Great now two of us are missing out on sleep." Or constipation. The best was a friend of mine in school who got called at 3 am for a low BUN. A test result of no consequence. He got called by a student nurse. Without missing a beat he told her to immediately call the lab and order two units of BUN and start a transfusion. (There is no such thing). Two hours later he got the second call from the angry nursing supervisor but he said it was worth it.

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They constantly try to escape from the darkness outside and within
Dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good T.S. Eliot

I haven't read this whole thing, but I am left wondering why it's taken almost 400 replies to answer such a simple question.

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I miss YaHey

My wife finished her Masters in 3 years, ahead of the average 3.5 years for her marine bio program. It was insanely rigorous, relatively speaking, and the quality of her work and knowledge base reflect that, but she was still low on the totem pole when post-docs came to work at her lab, despite the fact that she was far more capable of doing the work than the majority of them. My Masters program was coupled with a DPT program at our university. Their program was one semester longer, far less rigorous, had lower GPA promotion standards, and finished with a Doctoral degree, while we graduated with Masters. Also mildly annoying, but that's the way it goes.

My sister will earn a Masters in social work next year. One year.

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The devil made me do it the first time, second time I done it on my own - W

My wife finished her PhD in 4 years. Busted her tail to get done that quickly as many (most) seem to take 6 and then add in a post doc as well.

Pretty sure I am not cut out for that level of academic rigor.

drn92

Yes - you can call me Dr.

I'm an MD but only care about the "Doctor" title when I'm in the office seeing patients. I refer to all of my patients by "Mr" or "Mrs/Ms" as well. I feel like they have come to me for a professional service and I should try my best to keep it a professional relationship (not get on a first name, buddy buddy basis). Outside the office, I could care less and I never introduce myself as doctor at all.

As far as non-MD folks are concerned, I will refer to them as Doctor if they prefer it. I have a lot of respect for people with doctorate degrees and know they have worked extremely hard to earn the degree.

I'm proud of my MD but I don't display it or get upset if I'm called by my first name. In my family, I'm the first to go to college and it made my dad really proud for me to get my degrees so I guess it's an internal pride at accomplishing a goal

Most physicians I know go to great pains to avoid using the honorific outside of work.

Some doctorates are more impressive than others and I'll leave it at that.

I'm a system administrator and I was once awakened in the middle of the night by an operator because he noticed that the output of one of their scripts put the info in two columns instead of three like he was used to. Everything that else seemed normal but the format of the output was different than he had ever seen. I patiently explained the reason, thanked him for calling me and went back to bed. I figured that if I jumped down his throat the next time he saw something unusual it might be something really bad but he'd be afraid to call.

My wife is a nurse and she says that often new nurses put patients at risk because they are afraid to wake doctors up about their concerns. I can't judge the tone of your friends snarky answer but I'd caution to be nice to your nurses.

I saw a license plate frame yesterday: "Be nice to me...I might be your nurse some day."

That's why I am always nice to the nurses. Especially the newbie's. Nurses can make your life better in so many ways. I know what Duffy is thinking but that's not what I mean.

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They constantly try to escape from the darkness outside and within
Dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good T.S. Eliot

Bump & congrats

My last boss was a MD, PHD, knight of the realm and Lord

Unquestionably the single smartest, game changing (on a global scale in healthcare as a surgeon) person i have ever met

He'd have stood out irrespective of what he pursued though