Am I any less of a Doctor than his Mom?
My fiance's Mother graduated from a 6-year Dental school in Bolivia, South America. She can't practice here, legally, until she does a 2-year rotation at a hospital. Anyway...her husband , my guy's father, calls her Doctorita (spanish) and everyone else sort of follows and calls her Doctor Maria. I graduated, recently, from a nursing program...went for 8 years, and I have my DNP degree...it's called a Doctor of Nursing. So people...congratulated me..and now lovingly call me Doctor Janet. I never required that they do so...nor did I make a big stink about it. They can call me nurse or whatever...even though, I can't lie..it feels kind of nice to be recognized for my hard work. My husband's mother doesn't really seem to think I qualify for that title. She hasn't said it outright..but subtly expresses it...it shows. Am I any less of a Doctor than her? I realize she went to Dental school for 6 years...but I went to school for 8 years here at a great USA institute..and I don't feel like I should feel lesser than any Dentist, Pharmacist, or anyone else with a PhD. Is it silly? Is she right? I never asked to be called a Doctor..but I don't understand why it bothers her so much. She went to Dental school for 6 years and I went to school up here for 8 years..and they were 8 hard, long, years. I don't ever ask people to call me a Doctor..but his Mom has always been competitive and I'm tired of being put down. I'm not going to say anything to her..just curious..that's all.
Higher Education (University +) - 3 Answers
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1 :
Realistically, you're NOT a doctor and instead you're a nurse (albeit a highspeed one). Frankly, trying to put yourself on par with your elders is pretty much a pointless endeavor. And, on top of all that, all of us "regular people" out there - that put in many hard years of our own getting college degrees, and nearly as much education (lifetime-wise as any of you docs) - find it a bit pompous that any of you insist on being address Doctor or Doctorita or whatever.
2 :
You are NOT a doctor. You have a doctorate. Those are NOT the same thing. And you cannot do the same advanced work a dentist or pharmacist does. With that said, Forget about her and get your congrats. Soon she will be racking in bigger bucks and doing more work anyway.
3 :
You aren't a medical doctor, and she actually is, and that's the difference. And doctors really do see a huge difference between 1) nurses and doctors and 2) doctorates and MDs/DDSs. As does society. In common language in the US, a "doctor" is only a medical doctor. You are a nurse practitioner, which is wonderful and should be celebrated, but you're not a doctor. Based on all that, you can see that no, she doesn't think you're a doctor and no, she probably doesn't really like you being called one and yes, she does feel you are less of a doctor than she is because yes, you are. Medically, you are not a doctor. Does that mean you shouldn't be proud? No. Does that mean that the work you do as an NP isn't valuable? Absolutely not! But medically, you can't be called a "doctor", and she knows that. Worse, she's a doctor, but can't practice, and that probably hurts her, so she's sensitive about all this.
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