If nurses and other medical practitioners who are not MD's have to explain their role ('I will be your NURSE today') then no, I don't see it as an issue. Having worked in a hospital for the last 8 years, I have NEVER encountered this situation. Not once. I worked in emergency medicine in a large teaching hospital.
If a PhD allows a patient to be misled, then I suppose it could be a problem. However, the few nurses I knew with PhD's ALWAYS announced their role as a nurse. Like I said, I feel that 'Physician' is a better title for MD's. If there is currently confusion (which I have never, not once, witnessed) I feel that perhaps, in a medical setting, those with PhD's have no need to tell patients if they have completed their doctorate. Moving on.

If there is currently confusion (which I have never, not once, witnessed)

This is a NEW PROBLEM. By 2015, all new nurse practitioners will have doctorate degrees. Many of the universities that previously offered master's degrees are transitioning to doctorate degrees in the next three years.

^ But WHY do they need to call themselves Doctor when they are acting as a Nurse?

^ Because they will have earned the prefix "Doctor".

So Mr./Ms. So-and-so might be a nurse, but their title would be Dr. So-and-so since they have their doctorate. The physician's title would also be Dr. Such-and-such since they have their M.D. See how that could be confusing?

And since we just spent a good deal of this discussion explaining why those who receive a doctoral degree have full right (or for some in this thread even "more of a right") to call themselves "doctor", then there should probably be a way to distinguish these doctors from the other doctors, right?

^It's not confusing at all. That's why we've spent 5 pages discussing the topic.

^ But WHY do they need to call themselves Doctor when they are acting as a Nurse?

I think a lot of MDs might agree with you. Nurses, not so much. But if your nurse has a doctorate degree, it seems that might be something a patient is entitled to know.

Why don't they just change the name of doctorate/phd to something else?

Dr. Mendel, MD = Doctor Mendel, Medical Doctor

Scr. Mendel, MM = Scholar Mendel, Master Mind

^ I'm joking around with words there, but if the whole reason for the confusion is that the same word is used for both, then why not come up with an equally awesome title that has weight to it and still honors the achievement?

This really isn't that complicated and I don't think anyone is disagreeing that there could be confusion potentially. New, different names for the credentials would be great. It could be difficult to implement as 'doctor' has been in use for ages for both a MD and PhD, but it's a good idea none the less. Yipee.

I'm in the ER right now & I've been paying attention to this. Haven't seen a doctor yet. One person introduced himself as a practitioner of some sort - I think nurse practitioner, I don't remember, that was hours ago (sorry!). The nurses haven't really been introducing themselves, nor did the person who did my intake interview. Not really sure what their credentials were. It was just "Hi, I'm from the XYZ department" or whatever.

What I did notice that was helpful was underneath their nametags they have a BIG card that says "RN" on it. So far I've only seen the RN tag. It's impossible to miss. Of course that's pending the nametag is flipped outwards, they always flip the other way, don't they?

But that's really helpful.

Heart wrote:

It's impossible to miss. Of course that's pending the nametag is flipped outwards, they always flip the other way, don't they?

My hospital found a way to stop us from intentionally turning our name tags around - they printed the big title on BOTH sides of the large ribbon tag below the name tag. So much for hiding your identity from the crazy person trying to hunt you down in the ER... :/