Either the M.D. or the Ph.D. would look pretty silly running out for a carton of milk dressed like this.
Why does society value the M.D. away from her place of work so much more than it does the Ph.D. away from her place of work? I can understand the need to distinguish the M.D. from the Ph.D. in the M.D.‘s workplace. Patients need to understand who the physicians are. It would be confusing for the patients to call the Ph.D. “doctor” in the medical environment when patients are involved. But if we are going to call an M.D. “doctor” in a non-work environment simply as a matter of respect, we should also call a Ph.D. “doctor” in these same environments.
I suspect it comes in large part because Americans do not really value academic achievement as much as they value making money. Let’s face it; even though salaries for physicians are under extreme pressure in recent years, they still generally make a lot more than your average scientist or university professor. For that matter, maybe this is why we have such little respect for teachers. They don’t make enough money. So if we keep their salaries low, we don’t have to respect them, so we don’t have to feel bad about not giving them sufficient resources, so we can continue to blame them for the state of our schools. What a scheme!
I know. I got of on another rant. It just happens to be one that I really worry about. Sorry.
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I’m totally into name parity. In a doctor’s office, if I’m called by my first name, I address the doctor by her or his first name. I totally agree that outside of a doctor’s office, the Dr. title applies no matter if its PhD or MD. I also insist that the secretaries and billing staff accept name parity. If they call me by my title, I address them as Ms or Mr.
geezer-chick,
I really like your approach of name parity. I might call it title parity. But I have to wonder if I would have the mental stamina to demand application of it without losing my temper. I suspect that often you get a lot of initial shock followed by very strong resistance. But it might be fun to see just how long it takes the young physician to stop stammering after he gets called “George” when he uses my first name. The problem would be if he tries to lecture me that I should call him “Dr. whatever”. Sometimes I tend to be a little too hotheaded for such an exchange. Well, more than sometimes
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