EMT-B calling himself a 'Medic' in Indiana

[Just Plain Ruff]

Me wonders who???????????????????????????????????????????///

[ERDoc]

Well, do you think we have chased off the new guy?

[basmus]

Who cares what others call theirself. It will show in their knowledge if they are the real thing.

[ERDoc]

It matters a lot when you are in a situation and need to know who you are dealing with. I would hate to be in the field and have to ask, "When you say you are a medic, do you mean a paramedic or an EMT?" to everyone I don't know. It is also a term that implies a certain level of care to the patients, who will not be able to assess if the provider is, "the real thing."

[chbare]

Yeah, this is tough. Back in the dark ages as a nursing student, it was very clear who the physician was. When I went back to school in respiratory, I spent a significant amount of time in a large teaching hospital and with all the "doctor" titles it was exceptionally confusing to tell who was what.

I would not want to be in a situation out in the field where somebody identified themselves as a "medic" and I understood the standard interpretation of that title only to find out the provider was not a paramedic. Perhaps this is not a problem in a system where everybody is aware of the rules, but I cannot stop thinking about those confusing experiences I had in that hospital.

[ERDoc]

I can easily see a bad situation happening. Take your average serious MVA where there are multiple patients. You have multiple ambulances on scene, with crews who don't know each other. The paramedic that arrived first is triaging and has a real sick pt who needs ALS. A crew walks up and says, "Hey, I'm Bob, a medic from XYZ ambulance. Do you want me to take him?" The paramedic assumes that the provider is also a paramedic and hands the pt over to a BLS crew. I could definitely see this happening where I was a volley. If you have to mutual aid a neighboring dept, you don't know the people from the other dept so you can only go on what they say.

[scubanurse]

The doctor part is especially confusing. There's a Physical Therapist I know who refers to themselves as a Doctor because their technical title is DPT. I don't think this is right though, especially in the hospital setting because doctor is more commonly related to a medical doctor and using it in the term of a PT can be confusing.

Now starting in 2015, NP's will be required to have their DNP, but NP's have prescribing powers and a NPID number as well as a DEA number so I'm more ok with them being called doctor than a physical therapist.

[paramedicmike]

Who cares what others call theirself. It will show in their knowledge if they are the real thing.

No. Just... no.

This isn't a matter of being the "real thing". There are practical, and legal, implications of playing yourself off to be something you're not.

While there are knowledge aspects to be demonstrated there are also skill and technical practices involved. If someone identifies himself as a medic and there are medic level interventions that need to be completed then the expectation is that those skills can be completed. Misrepresent yourself, your provider level or your capabilities, regardless of your knowledge, you endanger yourself from a legal standpoint and you endanger the patient.

That's unacceptable.

As for the doctor title, in a clinical setting physicians should be called doctor. The implication, and expectation from the public, is that a doctor is a physician. Outside of a clinical setting, i.e. academia, if you have a PhD or similar academic doctorate then the "doctor" title is appropriate.

[ERDoc]

Just to go a little off topic here, but I find it interesting about the whole doctor thing. I totally agree that in the clinical setting, only MD/DOs should be identified as doctors as it implies a certain degree of education/training. Outside of it, I'm all for anyone with a doctorate degree calling themselves doctor if that is what they want, but as for me, I try not to let people know I am a physician unless I absolutely have to.

[scubanurse]

DNP's have referred to themselves as doctor's but I still like the term NP better, it's becoming more common to see NP's in the hospital as well.