Mister or Doctor? What's in a name?

The ties that bind: what's in a title?

“…There has been criticism that the ongoing use of gendered terms in surgery constitutes a form of ‘inverted snobbery’ and there have been calls for this arguably historically archaic practice to be phased out. Far from being a generational issue, as has been suggested, it appears to be a geographic one …”

“…Similarly, this geographic variation in the use of gender identification is replicated in urology. In 2004, Whelan and Woo reported the use of titles preferred by urologists in New South Wales and Victoria . They reported that use of the term ‘Mister’ amongst NSW urologists appeared to have become obsolete, whereas in Victoria, 86% of urologists continued to use the title.…”

“…Far from being a generational issue, as has been suggested, it appears to be a geographic one. 4,5 Limitations to this dataset are acknowledged. Some surgeons may use titles interchangeably (e.g.…”

“…In 2004, Whelan and Woo reported the use of titles preferred by urologists in New South Wales and Victoria. 4 They reported that use of the term 'Mister' amongst NSW urologists appeared to have become obsolete, whereas in Victoria, 86% of urologists continued to use the title. The practice of gendered titles is confusing for patients, referrers and the community.…”

Do Surgeons Wish to Become Doctors?

“…The medical editor of the Sydney Morning Herald, described the convention of addressing surgeons as Mr, as 'an outrageous piece of inverted snobbery', tempering this remark with the possibility that it may be a 'harmless historical quirk', retained perhaps because of the English medical class system? 3 In the UK, the division of physicians and surgeons into 'doctor' and Mr derives from the medieval origins of physicians as educated graduates, and the surgeons as apprentices (usually for 7 years) of barber-surgeons. (It should be noted, that in the 18th century, an MD could be purchased from Aberdeen or St Andrews universities for £20.)…”