The hotly contested issue of whether advanced practice nurses with doctoral-level education should get to use the title “Dr.” when practicing has drawn advocacy on both sides of the issue and even lawsuits.
But inside hospital walls, the shifting landscape of the profession is seen by some as beneficial to reshaping workplace dynamics, and the topic of debated titles falls by the wayside.
“When we think about the traditional hierarchy of healthcare where the physician is at the top and everyone else is underneath a physician, I think when the nurse practitioner role is a member of the healthcare leadership team, it has helped create more comfort with the bedside nurses,” Ceonne Houston-Raasikh, DNP, MSN, RN, chief nursing officer at the Keck Hospital of USC told Becker’s. “But I think the greatest impact on changing that hierarchy has been the way we train our physicians. Today, our physicians are trained to work as a member of a healthcare team. They’re coming out of medical school with the understanding that it’s not all about the physician, that you need every member of the healthcare team fully participating to improve outcomes for our patients.”
In other instances, the title discussion does come up during work, but more often due to patient education. Katie Anderson, APRN, FNP, MSN, RN, a provider with Elite Healthcare in Cross Road, Texas, that helped establish the family care clinic with Zivian Health, said she often corrects patients about her title.
Read the full coverage: How NP growth is changing healthcare hierarchies