If A Nurse Earns A PhD In Nursing, Are They Referred to as doctor?

If so, how do you prevent the patients from getting confused?

This question was originally posted on Quora.com and was answered by Laura Mitchell.



As I used to tell my students, doctor is a title, not an occupation. That being said, my hat is off to anyone who gets a doctorate. What annoys me is when some groups have no problem addressing a 25 year old with a PhD in physics (yes, Sheldon, I’m looking at you) as “doctor” but get their knickers in a twist if they’re expected to address a nurse with a doctorate as “doctor.” Go figure.

Source