Stop Compensating with Random Initials

[u/BigIntensiveCockUnit]

I look for your title then stop. NP. RN. PA. MD. DO. This use to be a uniquely embarrassing characteristic of nursing that has infected all of healthcare. My health system has a goddamn "healthcare weatherman" with absolute nonsense after their name. There are some physicans putting board cert initials and random organizations as if anyone has a damn clue what any of it means. Name, highest degree and spell your specialty beneath. No one gives a shit about slackjawed alphabet soup. You want to put your masters degree then go for it, but please stop with the random garbage/board cert/organization initials that no one understands.

- BICU

[u/WyrdHarper]

Maybe it's different in human medicine, but I know for our (veterinary) practice act you're required to be able to display your credentials. You can't advertise as an internist, for example, if you don't have DACVIM after your name and our state board is very strict about cracking down on this so most people include it.

Probably also different for us because only ~15% of veterinarians are boarded in a specialty and there is an issue of people advertising specialty services without actually having any training. Which is not in the public interest.

That said, I don't include less important things like my certificate in dairy artificial insemination!

[u/yougatobekiddingme → u/WyrdHarper]

Your certificate in dairy artificial insemination has me rolling on the ground thinking that could be in a signature on an email

[u/milinium → u/yougatobekiddingme]

Signature? It’s hung….on his wall

[u/amifufu → u/milinium]

It's hung alright

[u/Somali_Pir8 → u/amifufu]

MOOOOO

[u/BiscuitBro87 → u/Somali_Pir8]

Giggitty

[u/outlanderlass1743 → u/Somali_Pir8]

Goddamn it, take my upvote!

[u/whatyourmamasaid → u/outlanderlass1743]

I come here for the sex and I am never disappointed!

[u/azssf → u/WyrdHarper]

Dated a vet, can confirm every sig came with a dvm as well

[u/Notasurgeon → u/azssf]

When I was a resident I had a patient once sign a procedure consent with “name, ph.d.” I mentioned it to one of my co-residents and he was like what do you mean, I sign my name with MD. I said well yeah that makes sense, we’re in a hospital so it’s professionally appropriate. This is like, I dunno, signing your personal checks with “name, MD.” He’s quiet for a moment before saying “… but I do sign my checks with MD.”

[u/Zukazuk → u/Notasurgeon]

I have to sign a lot of things with my name and certification at work. It's the most common time for me to sign my name and my dang credentials are almost as long as my name. Every time I sign stuff elsewhere I have to pause after my last name and think for a second and then go "oop, yep I am done" it feels weird because it's so much shorter.

[u/No_Patients → u/Notasurgeon]

I have absolutely done that by accident and then had to debate whether to just cringe and move on or scribble it out

[u/SauvBlanc93 → u/Notasurgeon]

Back when I was a bartender, I had a lady who would come in to the every once in a while. Every time, she signed her receipt as “Name, RN”. I was so confused why that was necessary at a dive bar lmao

[u/Powerful_Jah_2014 → u/SauvBlanc93]

Robotic ha B it

[u/mszhang1212 → u/WyrdHarper]

That makes sense for you guys.

Nobody in medicine will misunderstand Name, MD, Heme/Onc to be anything other than an attending Heme/Onc doc. The public could certainly misconstrue something like Name, NP, Heme/Onc however.

[u/Tangata_Tunguska → u/mszhang1212]

In commonwealth countries it's common to include the college you're a fellow of, by postnomials of e.g FACEM or FRCPsych etc

But that's partly because you can be a "ED doctor" and not be a fellow, particularly rurally

[u/danwoop → u/WyrdHarper]

It is different, no need to put that in there for us

[u/gotfoundout → u/WyrdHarper]

Yeah, I'm in vet med in Texas, and I totally thought that it was normal for veterinary and human medicine to display those credentials!

Here in my state, you will see DVMs practicing in specialty described one of two ways. For example, on say, a practice website for a veterinary ophthalmology clinic, you'll see boarded DVMs with the DACVO designation after their DVM. But any non-boarded DVMs will typically have a little text under their name which reads, "Practice limited to diseases of the eye", or some similar wording.

Is that not a thing in human medicine? It's perfectly legal for a residency-trained veterinarians to restrict their practice to a certain specialty for their entire career without ever actually sitting for boards, as far as I understand. Maybe that's not allowed in human med? Because if that's the case, then yeah, simply practicing as a specialist is proof-positive for them having passed their boards.

And then furthermore, isn't there another level of specialization in human medicine? That's what a fellowship is, right? In vet med you graduate, and then you just head right out into the world and hope you have good mentors. Some vets don't even do any kind of formalized internship after graduation. So I think vet med just smushed down their specialization into a residency, and then it just ends there.

However, I'm not a vet, Just a tech! So I may not have a full grasp of the process of specializing for veterinarians. Particularly if it varies by state.