[thread drift]
If a Nurse earns a PhD are they then a Doctor?
[/thread drift]
A few months back I was being treated for a hip problem by the physical therapy department at the nearby VA hospital. The therapy wasn't producing results, so at one session the young lady therapist disappeared into a back room, came back with a book, and thumbed through it. After reading a few pages, she pronounced that she thought I had a torn labrum.
That generated a referral to Orthopedics. The doctors in the specialty clinics are all interns or residents from the nearby teaching hospital, so--basically--medical students. The guy I got was an obnoxious, pompous young ahole. I went through the entire history, described the symptoms, explained the therapy and how it hadn't helped much, and finally got to the therapist's suggestion that I might have a torn labrum. His response?
"Well,
she's only a therapist. I'm a doctor, and you're too old to have a torn labrum."
Ooooookay, then. At the next therapy session the young lady asked me what the orthopedic doctor had said, so I told her--verbatim. She smiled, and said, "Actually, I have a doctorate in physical therapy, so I am a doctor." ZAP!
I then dusted off my medicare plan and went to see the sports medicine orthopedic doctor to whom all the other orthopedic docs in the area refer hip problems. He listened to the history, looked at the same x-rays the VA doctor had seen, read the therapy notes, and said, "Yep. You have a torn labrum." Didn't hesitate for a nanosecond.
So much for young Mr. "I'm a doctor, she's only a therapist" at the VA.
