"Untitling" Your Physician | The effects of calling your doctor by their first name with Dr. Dawn Prall

High-Fidelity Conversations

Jan 4 2023 • 29 mins

[Ep9] Do you call your physician by their first name? Or do you keep things traditional by always calling your provider "doctor" when visiting their office? Maybe you're a physician who is burnt out on people calling you by your first name while you're on-the-job? Listen in on this conversation with Dr. Dawn Prall as we talk about the advantages and disadvantages of going casual with professional titles - and more - on this episode of High-Fidelity Conversations!

Dawn Prall, M.D., FACEP, is the Medical Director for the Center for Innovative Learning (aka the Mount Carmel Sim Lab), here in Columbus, Ohio. She also has extensive experience as an acute care physician.

For this episode, we talk with her about an online article from Medscape dealing with the pros and cons of ditching a formal title for a physician in a clinical setting. Dr. Prall is notorious in the Sim Lab for wanting her colleagues to call her "Dawn," but listen in on this episode to see if she holds the same thoughts for how people should address her in a clinical environment. Check out this conversation to learn more about:

  • What are some of the consequences of addressing a physician by their first name?
  • Does gender play a factor in "untitling" a physician?
  • What can you do, as a physician, to help promote a friendly interaction with patients while maintaining professional boundaries?
  • What can you do, as the patient, to avoid offending your physician by being too casual?
  • And more!


Quick Links:

  • PDFs of the Medscape article and associated studies: Linktree


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