Sometimes you see a opportunity that appears to be an open goal, and easy chance for improving something at work that seems obvious. You take your best shot, but somehow the ball doesn’t sink into the back of the net it rebounds off the goalposts and ends up hitting you in the face, painful and embarassing. This happend to me recently, I suggested introducing #Hellomynameis at work. This campaign, for those that don’t know, encourages people working in heathcare to properly introduce themselves and their role to patients each time they meet them. I carefully composed my message, part informative, part personal experience, only sending it after several rewrites. With it I posted a picture of my badge from the campaign, that only included my first name, which has been how I introduce myself professionally for years. Can you spot my error, how I entered a controversy? I certainly didn’t, but the response rapidly made it clear to me I had made a false assumption. Not over #hellomynameis, a simple idea, all staff should introduce themselves and their role to patients they are interacting with, little controversy there. My badge, on the other hand, suggested that all heathcare professionals should be using their first names. You can almost hear that ball thumping back into my face, as that is not a given by any means.
Our names are extremely personal but public at the same time. We do not choose our true names, but as we grow-up they are integral to our identity. We develop nicknames and family names that identify us in our families, often not used in the outside world. At school other names may be used, the same in teams, clubs and social circles, again often not chosen they all confer social meaning and we associate particular social roles with them. Once we enter the workplace we have the opportunity to choose the professional name we are addressed with in a given interaction. The name that we practice day-to-day under. A professional name may be influenced by the local, national and international professional and social culture, but in the end is a personal choice. We have to inhabit our professional name in all aspects of our professional life. While much interaction with patients and staff is relatively amicable, healthcare professionals must undertake some extremely challenging interactions at times. Tragedy, disability, conversations on mortality, death and abuse to list only a few, our names must allow us to perform these roles too. We must therefore be comfortable in the professional name we choose to do all this under, we must be comfortable to express all aspects of our professionalism through the professional name we choose to use. Our names do not define us as doctors, our actions towards patients do that, but they do permit us to feel confident in that role. All this before we start considering the expectations that patients have for addressing doctors, which have similar social narrative constructs behind them.
So what am I saying? The term of address you chose must allow you to perform as a doctor, this is personal and nuanced by the patient and the particular interaction. For myself, I introduce myself with “I am Jason Neil-Dwyer, I am your doctor” I am comfortable with my first name in most circumstances, but will choose a more formal address in particular difficult circumstances or if the patient wishes. Others will be different, but I do not believe it matters. I think it is not the particular name that matters, more the quality and nature of the actions and communications with patients and staff it is part of, after all that is the core of doctoring. Is that the sound of a ball hitting the back of the net?
Doctoring the Invisibles 