In 1994, five states allowed nurse practitioners full practice authority meaning they didn't need physician supervision to test, treat and prescribe. Today, 27 states and Washington, D.C., do.
Arlene Wright is a doctor, but she doesn't want people to call her one. "I usually tell my patients 'your majesty' or 'your highness' is fine," she said.Subscribe to The Post Most newsletter for the most important and interesting stories from The Washington Post. Wright has been a nurse for more than 20 years in Fort Myers, Fla. She began working in hospitals as a teenage candy striper in Upstate New York, progressing through an associate's degree in nursing, then a bachelor's, then a master's,
Some states ban nurses from being called doctor despite similar care washingtonpost.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from washingtonpost.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
A new Georgia law has renewed debate over the legal use of the title as more people earn doctorates in healthcare fields and challenge the notion that only MDs should call themselves doctor. Jennifer Mensik Kennedy, president of the American Nurses Association, remembers the day well. She was at a meeting of administrators at the hospital where she worked and the physicians there were addressing each other by first name. Mensik Kennedy assumed everyone would be on a first name basis. But when she followed suit, the informal tone of the meeting quickly changed. “I was corrected,” she recalled. “They said, ‘No, no, no, this is Dr. Smith.’”