‘The word ‘doctor’ doesn’t belong to physicians’: Nurses sue for the right to use the title

Should nurses with doctorates be allowed to call themselves “doctor?” Three nurses in California who have earned a doctorate in nursing practice believe so strongly they’re entitled to this title that they’ve sued the state for the right to affix it to their names. “It’s not an ego trip, it’s not a power trip—it’s just validation that I worked hard to get where I am today,” Jacqueline Palmer, one of the nurse practitioners in the lawsuit, was quoted in a Washington Post article. “The word ‘doctor’ doesn’t belong to physicians.” California—along with a number of other states such as Arizona and Delaware—forbids nurses, pharmacists and other health professionals who don’t have a certification as a physician or surgeon from referring to themselves as a doctor or physician. This rule was put to the test recently when a nurse practitioner named Sarah Erny referred to herself as “Doctor Sarah” on social media and in online advertising. Read: Doctor on criminal trial for multiple alleged sexual assaults hit with civil lawsuit California hit her with a US$20,000 fine for false advertising and fraud. The state’s medical association piled on with its own fine of US$2,500. The three nurse practitioners who filed the lawsuit stated in their claim that they feared similar sanctions. They also said in the suit that the law violates their first amendment right and that after “years earning their advanced degrees and qualifications . . . they should be able to speak truthfully about them in their workplaces, on their business cards, the internet, and social media, so long as they clarify that they are nurse practitioners.” The lawsuit named three state officials as defendants: California attorney general Rob Bonta, state medical board president Kristina Lawson, and California Board of Registered Nursing executive officer Loretta Melby. The fight for nurses to use the “doctor” title has been playing out in other states in recent months. In Florida, a bill to prevent advanced practice nurses from calling themselves “doctor” was passed in the state senate but vetoed by Governor Ron DeSantis. In Georgia, lawmakers passed an act last May requiring advanced practice nurse and physician assistants who use the title of doctor to state explicitly that they are not medical doctors. Read: Nurse practitioners in B.C. can now assess crisis patients for involuntary admissions

‘The word ‘doctor’ doesn’t belong to physicians’: Nurses sue for the right to use the title

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