How to address your Consultant?
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How to address your Consultant?
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Throughout my medical training so far, I have always addressed the consultant physicans as Dr and the consultant surgeons as Mr/Miss/Mrs/Ms, whichever was appropriate. This has been the case since I
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Forums » Open clinical » General clinical » How to address your Consultant?
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How to address your Consultant?
posted at 31/10/2011 4:40 PM GMT
on bmj.com
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Posts: 8
First: 31/10/2011 Last: 4/11/2011 |
Throughout my medical training so far, I have always addressed the consultant physicans as Dr and the consultant surgeons as Mr/Miss/Mrs/Ms, whichever was appropriate. This has been the case since I started my clinical training as a 3rd year medical student and has lasted all the way to my SHO days. I have always believed, unless an individual has specified otherwise, that HOs, SHOs and SpRs can be addressed on a first name basis, but the consultant must be called by their title and surname. Recently I stumbled upon a consultant physican who asked me to address him by his first name. This was a shock to me and despite his request, just like a parrot, I still called him Dr X. It felt very alien to call a consultant by his first name which got me thinking? Is medicine full of old traditions that are just followed, like this, or is it important to identify the consultant by using their title and not been overfamililar. If your a consultant what is your view and how do your team address you? If your a junior or middle grade, what do you think of this situation and how will you like to be addressed when you become a consultant? |
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Re: How to address your Consultant?
posted at 31/10/2011 6:41 PM GMT
on bmj.com
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Posts: 1345
First: 25/1/2009 Last: 16/5/2013 |
if you want somethink slightly more informal than Dr X but still polite try "Boss" or if they're a Professor then "Prof" is nice - interestingly Doc never seemed to work as well - I guess because you're one too |
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Re: How to address your Consultant?
posted at 31/10/2011 11:47 PM GMT
on bmj.com
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Posts: 2947
First: 10/3/2009 Last: 29/4/2013 |
Familiarity breeds contempt. Anglo-Saxons particularly Australians are appalling when it comes to formality. We don't even have the same verbal structure which allows this unlike many other European languages and I expect non-European ones. Honorific titles add dignity to both student and teacher as well as RMO and Consultant. It thus gives privileges to both which do not exist with galloping mediocrity where Johnny is as good as his master except when it goes pear-shaped, mate if you know what I mean, hey?
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Re: How to address your Consultant?
posted at 1/11/2011 6:42 AM GMT
on bmj.com
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Posts: 873
First: 17/6/2011 Last: 17/5/2013 |
I'll answer this from the point of view of what I ask my team to do. In front of patients I address my juniors by Dr X and ask them to do the same. Informally I'm happy for them to call me either by my first name or by my title whatever works for them. sadian |
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Re: How to address your Consultant?
posted at 1/11/2011 9:13 AM GMT
on bmj.com
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Posts: 2034
First: 12/3/2010 Last: 17/5/2013 |
Names are an interesting expression of social construct. I know all the theatre staff who I work with by their first names, because that is what they use to each other. But often, I don't know, or can't recall, their surnames, for the same reason. They address me as 'Dr', and surgeons as 'Mr', and a surgeon, twenty years my junior who I work with regularly, has said to me that he cannot bring himself to call me 'John'. No offence, Dr.J, but you are just too senior! |
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Re: How to address your Consultant?
posted at 1/11/2011 2:53 PM GMT
on bmj.com
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*Moderator*
Posts: 681
First: 17/11/2008 Last: 16/5/2013 |
In my first house job my boss who we called Mr always called you by your surname only until he decided you were not completely hopeless at which time he called you by your first name. When he started calling you by your first name you couldn't help but feel thrilled. Was that pathetic? It was certainly hierachical. Sadian's way of doing things seems nice. |
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You can call me Susan
posted at 1/11/2011 4:30 PM GMT
on bmj.com
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Posts: 1177
First: 19/4/2010 Last: 16/5/2013 |
I really don't mind what my juniors call me. I introduce myself with forename and surname to patients, and tell them my role, leaving them to decide what to call me, and the same for the junior staff. Some of the juniors seem happy to call me Tom, others less so. The only place I insist on being called by my first name is the bronchoscopy suite - it is vital that the team all knows each other's names so if there's a dangerous situation, or something needs to be announced, or individual needs to be warned of something, the immediacy of a first name ensures that the individual takes heed. Interestingly we have a work night out tomorrow, so we'll see what the juniors call me. As an aside, I get a lot of e-mails from students. They never seem to know how to start the e-mail, and usually go with "Hi". Odysseus will think this a shocking lack of imagination, and a paucity of vocabulary. It tickles me that they can't decide what to call me. I answer to most things, and as Viiny Jones says in Snatch - You can call me Susan, if it makes you happy....
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Re: How to address your Consultant?
posted at 1/11/2011 11:31 PM GMT
on bmj.com
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Posts: 2947
First: 10/3/2009 Last: 29/4/2013 |
Many of my patients call my by my first name. It is nice when my sailing crew call me skipper or skip. It is not so much the word used but the meaning and attitude behind it. Graciousness by gentlemen and gentlewomen in positions of authority should engender positive and respectul responses. There are older physicians I would still call Professor. or Dr as they were senior when I was a young doctor and I still give them that respect. Only if they said to call them by their Christian name would I dare to do so. I bear the title, Professor a bit like a hair shirt at times. I prefer Dr as I earned that with a doctorate and it is less pretentious in my opinion. I always think of old men in slippers and smoking jackets and smoking pipes. Formality bears with it a sense of elegance in my opinion. Homer used an epithet before most great names eg the Fleet-Footed Hermes and the Grey-Eyed Goddess, Athena, nay e'en the Redoutable Double-Duck-Footed DundeeChest?
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Re: How to address your Consultant?
posted at 2/11/2011 4:35 AM GMT
on bmj.com
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Posts: 1
First: 2/11/2011 Last: 2/11/2011 |
Being south indian community, we never use surname instead followed by father,s name. Its unfair to call doctors under father,s name. so my preference goes to call on doctors on first name. |
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Re: How to address your Consultant?
posted at 2/11/2011 5:07 AM GMT
on bmj.com
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Posts: 2947
First: 10/3/2009 Last: 29/4/2013 |
Very interesting. We have a lot of doctors now in Australia who are from the cricket subcontinent and that quaint little island at the bottom which grows tea. They often send me referrals and just their name with a mere unintelligible squiggle and as their names are long and challenging for an Anglo-Saxon who has not mastered Sanskrit but getting better at Greek, I am at a loss which name is the one I use in Dear Dr letters, particularly as most Australian doctors (they hate formality too) use colleagues' first names unless an enemy or completely unknown to them. We no longer use the term Christian name as most have been fed to lions or are running clandestine prayer meetings in catacombs.
Please advise in less than 10,000 words. |
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