Two years ago I posted about the AMA's irritation regarding nursing's advance practice nurses who receive a doctor of nursing practice (DNP) degree.

The DNP is becoming accepted throughout the U.S.; it allows primary care clients (those with chronic diseases, for example)have access to quality care. [I am biased, I know.] In all states DNPs are authorized to prescribe, their education is standardized and rigorous, and they must test to become certified. But the AMA is continuing their fight. Now they've added "residencies" to it, as they think residencies only belong to physicians. Yet there are many nursing residencies in place, and no profession owns a word. Here is one organization's response, which I thought was excellent.

As you can see, it's all about the words "doctor" and "residency." The word doctor comes from the Latin word docere, meaning to teach, and this is probably the best definition that the OED provides: "One who, in any faculty or branch of learning, has attained to the highest degree conferred by a University; a title originally implying competency to teach such subject or subjects, but now merely regarded as a certificate of the highest proficiency therein." For resident, on the other hand, the AMA may have a better argument, at least based on the OED. Here the definition is: "N. Amer. A medical graduate who has completed an internship and is engaged in specialized practice under supervision in a hospital, usu. as training for independent specialization." That word is derived from the Latin residre, meaning "to reside."

Instead of the emotional point of view of the 2 professions, what are the thoughts of you logophiles?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Kalleh,

It seems to be a turf war. I agree that "doctor" should be applied to those with a PhD.

Here in Oregon one frequently finds NPs, or Nurse Practitioners. The Kaiser system is chock full of them with MDs used for specialty work. I don't know what the difference is between an NP and a DNP, if any.

I think we all agreed with you about the attempted takeover of the word 'doctor' last time.

I'll just say that a resident here in the UK is someone who lives somewhere; I am a resident of London. I reside in my own home. Wikipedia has a disambiguation page where the North American meaning of "residency" is only the third of four meanings.

If one were a plastic surgeon in training in the US, the last two could be synonymous.

Yes, resident, meaning physicians in training, is surely an American term.

Asa, by 2015 all nurse practitioners will be DNPs. Today it's a little confusing because some have master's degrees and some are DNPs. A DNP is a nurse practitioner with more supervised experience and education. The profession thought that we should raise the education of that degree, given the complexity of health care. PT and pharmacy has done the same thing.

I agree that it's a turf war, but the funny part, I believe, is that it's all based on the meaning of, and use of, words.

When I started in academia, the nursing program wanted more respect...and money. The discussion got up to the president, who then wrote a thoughtful paper about why he thought nursing was different from other university majors. It all had to do, he said, with the "ing." No other majors, he asserted, ended with "ing," like English or biology do. We rather burst his intellectual balloon by reminding him of engineering.