To want 'Dr' on my name badge?

[sallysparrow157]

Following a chat with my non medical friend - I'm a doctor and very aware that the general public don't really know what our job titles mean any more (FYs and STs). My past two jobs I have had to specifically ask to have Dr myname on my name badge as well as the generally meaningless st6 or 7.
Of course I introduce myself as 'my name, the children's doctor on the unit today' but my ID badge is so people know what I am as well as who I am. If I had not pushed for it I would be wearing a label saying 'myname st7' and nothing else which means sod all to anyone who matters (ie the people I care for and their families)

[FrancesHouseman]

Yes I think Dr on your name badge would be handy. What does FY and ST mean?!

[MrsHoolie]

I have a friend called Sally Sparrow!she isn't a Dr though.

[sallysparrow157]

Fy is foundation yrs and st is speciality trainee, replacing house officer, senior house officer and registrar. For the firs 2 yrs after graduating you are a foundation trainee then you choose what you want to specialise in so you become a speciality trainee, starting at st1 and progressing each year up to st 7 or 8 when you finish your training and get to apply to be a consultant. But most people don't have a clue what any of these letters and numbers mean!

[MamaChubbyLegs]

YANBU. You should have a recognisable job title on your name badge. Your name badge should reflect what you wish to be known as, title and all, if necessary!

[RiotsNotDiets]

YANBU, if I was a DR I'd have it embroidered on my knickers and engraved on my teapot. I'd want the world to know!

[FrancesHouseman]

Thanks for explaining. You're totally right about most people not knowing what the initials and numbers mean, Dr is fine!

[MamaChubbyLegs]

Sally, when you become an "st", is that the equivalent as "SHO"? And what year is equivalent to "Registrar"?

Or are those terms completely done away with now?

I need to know who I'm talking to when I go back to work after mat leave!

[ChasingDogs]

YANBU! I don't care what level graduate you are or how long ago you specialised... I just want to know if you can fix whatever body part I've buggered up!

I vote for "doctor" and "student that hasn't done this before so prepare for it to be really painful". Yes, I'm thinking of you, nervous medical person whose hands were shaking as they stuck a camera up my nose and down my throat I genuinely had no idea that tubes going through your nasal cavity could hurt that bloody much.

You may call yourself doctor though, OP, as statistically it is unlikely you have assaulted me in a hospital with a tiny camera.

[sallysparrow157]

St 1 and 2 is definitely an sho. St3 can be an sho or a reg (I was on a reg rota for the first 6 months of being an st3 then an sho for the next 6!)' st4 and above is definitely a registrar. We still call ourselves shos and registrars but our official job titles and name badges use letters and numbers!

[sallysparrow157]

Chasingdogs, I don't do tiny cameras so it definitely wasn't me! Does remind me of the first time they made me take blood as a student though, a needle and blood phobic chap had fainted whilst having his blood sugars checked s was shipped to hospital where I was told to take his blood, poor bugger fainted again leaving us both traumatised!!

[MamaChubbyLegs]

Thanks for clearing that up. Not going to lie, I've been a bit bewildered by each new influx of medical staff onto my ward! Although thankfully, in my trust, we do use "Dr" before a doctor's name on the ID, which helps a bit.

I do think that something simpler would be much more reassuring for patients and visitors and me though.

[ChasingDogs]

Aha! Brilliant I had a college tutor who was blood phobic, and I only found out when I wandered in for a one to one tutorial moments after having sliced my arm open. T'was a bit awkward!

If I'm honest during the camera incident I did want to yell "Oh dear god what are you doing to the inside of my face?! I didn't even know my face had in inside, complete with nerves! STOOOOP". In the end though I didn't want to make the nervous expert-medical-body-fixer even more nervous. I settled for gripping the arms of the chair very hard and shooting pleading looks at the person in charge. It didn't work, hmph!

On the other hand, I was well impressed with the doc who took off the detached skin of my cornea with a cotton wool bud. That guy didn't mess about. I even got told off for flinching on the first attempt.

[cafecito]

yanbu at all, I bet some staff don't even know what st7 means!

I'm a bit concerned by the times students are asked to be 'stand in house officers' where I am

I mean, really

I do need a warning on my badge

[cafecito]

actually.. am lowly medical student, and my badge does not say I am a student just says ... medicine.... like in an ever so slightly magical dr quinn meets david blaine way

[cafecito]

ChasingDogs! Ouch!

[sallysparrow157]

Cafecito, you probably look like you have more right to be there than me! Badge saying 'medical' v badge with random letters and numbers...

[cafecito]

I get very angry patients when I tell them I am a lowly student, as if I am winding them up if you ever wear scrubs sally you probably look like the cleaning team. if you don't you probably look like a random off the street



how about a Dr tattoo? or a surplus of stethoscopes?

[cafecito]

yes, 3 of them, like a daisy chain of stethoscopes..

st7 though! *applauds

hope you enjoy it

my friend just failed paces.. again... makes me a little nervous!

[ChasingDogs]

PMSL at a badge that says "medicine" in a hospital. My layman's brain would automatically think "well, yeah, please. Kinda why I'm here..."

But it does have more authority. "Check me out, I'm medicine. Medical doctor Medicine. Not surgery, we keep them on another floor, out of the way of the general medical things. Nobody goes there if they can help it. Your first stop is medical stuff, and that's right where you are... where the medicine is. Medicine I'm qualified to prescribe, for medical purposes."

I think I could trust a "medicine" badge.

[cafecito]

In fact, it says just... 'Medicine' .... no numbers, no dates, no additional words

[DoubleLifeIsALifeHalved]

Yes agree completely, I wish everyone in hospitals would have their title and \or job title on their badges, as it's no earthly use knowing someone's name unless I also know 'who they are' and can direct the right questions at them...

Also I have found sometimes people are quite sensitive about being asked their role/ specialism/ level etc, and it would cut out that.

[FairPhyllis]

If it says 'ST1' on someone's badge, doesn't that look a bit like 'STI'? Probably not the image to project.

I think helping patients understand who is who easily is really important. Every time I've been in a hospital I've been totally bewildered about who is exactly what kind of staff - you get the impression that there are thousands of people milling around but you don't know who you can approach, or whether you're talking to a doctor or some random who's just walked in off the street.

[VinegarDrinker]

YANBU, we have the same. And half the time when I introduce myself as Dr or 'the doctor covering labour ward tonight' I still get called nurse or midwife

You need one that says "Dr SallySparrow, nearly a Consultant" though, for maximum lay understanding!

[melody1771]

The 'person' looking after me had a lanyard type I'd badge saying Dr on one side and nurse on the other! never did get to the bottom of that!

[piprabbit]

Could the new August doctors have a special badge that says "Cut me some slack, I'm still trying to work out where the toilets are".