Ghosts of Doctor Title Bills Past

OPINION ARTICLE: Not representative of the position of the Coalition Affiliate Members.

The holiday season is fast approaching, and so are ghosts of the past. That includes a few unwanted gifts under our Holiday Tree. (No offense to the Great Mr. Dickens!). Once again, legislation has begun to be filed for the 2026 Florida Legislative Session, and the “Doctor Title Bill” has again risen from its grave.

“SB-36 Use of Professional Titles” would limit a nurse’s use of the title “Doctor” to those with a Ph.D or Doctor of Nursing Practice Degree and would require those individuals to identify that they are a nurse when they use the title of “Doctor”. Text of the Bill is below:

“Only a person who holds a license in this state or a multistate license pursuant to s. 464.0095 to practice professional nursing or to perform nursing services is authorized to use the title Doctor of Nursing Practice and the abbreviation “D.N.P.,” the title Doctor of Philosophy and the abbreviation “Ph.D.,” or other titles or abbreviations authorized under his or her practice act. Doctoral degree holders must specify their profession when using the term “doctor.””

The argument in support of this legislation is that patients do not have the capacity to discriminate between a physician and an Advanced Practice Nurse and patients may be misinformed about their care provider. Those who support this argument state that it ensures full disclosure and allows patients to make informed decisions regarding their healthcare provider. The argument holds that this legislation protects patients and prevents nurses from misrepresenting themselves.

I can understand the argument in support of this legislation, but I find it disingenuous. First, it presumes that consumers don’t have the capacity to discriminate between their healthcare providers. (It is also an interesting argument because it presupposes that Advanced Practice Nurses are so good that they can’t be discriminated from a physician.). The legislation also disparages nursing by presuming the profession would attempt to intentionally misinform patients.

Next, it ignores existing Florida legislation that states only Physicians can practice medicine. Existing law would penalize any Advanced Practice Nurse that represents themselves as a physician or as practicing medicine. Such legislation protects consumers from fraud and malfeasance.

Legislators also have also enacted laws, such as the Nurse Practice Act to ensure that healthcare providers practice to the limitations of their license and “stay in their lane”. This legislation achieves nothing at ensuring individuals practice within their scope of practice. Adding onerous additional requirements serves no role in protecting patients and further confuses patients.

However the most telling component of the legislation is the fact that this legislation is limited to “nurses”. No such requirements exist for Pharmacists, Therapists, Chiropractors, Dentists or other healthcare providers prepared at the doctoral level. This legislation isolates nurses and places the requirement solely on them. ONLY Advanced Practice Nurse would have to state “I’m Doctor Briggs A NURSE PRACTITIONER!”

If the true objective of this legislation was to empower consumers shouldn’t it be more comprehensive and require ALL healthcare providers to identify their role when they use the title of “Doctor”? Wouldn’t patients be best served by full disclosure instead of isolating ONE profession?

I suspect that the objective of this legislation is to protect the perceived hierarchy that is perpetuated by the Medical Community within healthcare delivery. This hierarchy that holds the Physician is the “Captain of the Ship”** and that Advanced Practice Nurses (and other providers) are “Midlevel Providers”. (Which presupposes that there are “Bottom Level Providers”).

By requiring Advanced Practices Nurse to absolutely identify their role it demonstrates that we are “other”, “different” and somehow “less then”. It creates confusion with the consumer, not clarity as the patient questions why only the Nurse Practitioner identifies who they are each time they come into the room.

I believe it is well past time for health policy leaders to stop playing these “title” games and focus on addressing real health challenges that our communities are facing. The amount of time spent on this legislation year after year could have been more appropriately spent on increasing healthcare access, improving quality of care and creating innovative care delivery models.

All of the things that nursing have been working on years while we waste time fighting this bill as it returns year after year.

Just my opinion.

Edward Briggs MS DNP APRN

SB 36 – Use of Professional Nursing Titles

General Bill by Sharief

Use of Professional Nursing Titles: Authorizing persons who hold specified licenses to practice professional nursing or to perform nursing services to use certain titles and abbreviations; requiring doctoral degree holders to specify their profession when using a specified title, etc.

**A phrase commonly used by the organized medical community.