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But I will say... in reality, its generally not worth it. Patients often dont hear it, they get confused, and calling yourself doctor really just tends to confuse things. In my experience, the people who do that are either totally insecure about their role or arrogant egotists.
And with a PhD, that gets even more confusing in the health care setting. The best advice (and the one that I've given to students for decades) is just dont bother with the title unless its a professional function. Students call me doctor, which is fine, and colleagues at formal conferences certainly do the same, or in introductions, but realistically, the only people who use the title in everyday use are boors. By everyday use, I mean introducing yourself as "Dr. and Mrs" to a neighbor, or at a social event, etc. And almost no PhDs outside of a health care field would EVER use the title doctor unless it was in a professional capacity.
I definitely understand the point you are making. And I really have no stake in it anyway since I have no degree, yet, even at the losest level. What sparked this op for me was reading the thread that I linked to in the op which is a nursing forum. Some nurses who have earned their Doctoral degree would like to indentify as the title they earned and there are some nurses who agree that it is pointless and confusing.
I just wanted to get the general publics opinion to see if they felt the same way.