When the nurse wants to be called doctor

The New York Times had an article this week about the growing number of health care professionals, other than physicians, earning doctorates. This creates a debate about who gets to call themselves "doctor." But beyond titles, a larger debate looms about who should treat patients first and who should be in charge of coordinating patient care. If roles are unclear, it opens the door to confusion in communication between patients and providers. For patients, there is an increasing number of professionals they can approach for their care, but may also be confusion about who they should approach for care and what training they have. For health professionals, as long as titles have some ambiguity, they can't make assumptions that their patients know their role in health care. Providers have a responsibility to clearly explain their role to the patients. That explanation may be a great prompt for conversation about how the patient's care will proceed.