STAT July 17, 2023
Florida legislators recently passed legislation to prevent advanced practice nurses in Florida with doctorates from using the honorific “doctor.” The state House and Senate bills proposed that nurses with doctorates who introduce themselves to patients as “Dr. Smith, nurse practitioner,” could face disciplinary action. Lobbyists who supported this measure referred to it as a “patient empowerment bill that allows them to understand who is treating them.” Thankfully, Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed the bill.
But this was just one of many recent examples of state legislators declaring that referring to doctorly prepared nurses as “doctors” is confusing to patients. In a 2022 article in Missouri Medicine, Gary Gaddis, M.D., Ph.D., wrote that when advanced practice nurses ask to be called “doctor,”...
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