I was appointed as 'GP specialist in substance misuse' on a consultant contract and doing the same job as addiction psychiatrists in my trust. I am reluctant to use the above title as I no longer do any GP work. The senior consultant further pointed out that 'specialist' and 'specialty doctor' (formerly staff grade) are likely to be confused. Specialist (primary care) seems marginally preferable. What do other addiction specialists of GP (or public health) origin call themselves?

Substance Misuse Specialist (primary care) is what it says in the clinical guideleines and Addiction specialist (primary care) is waht it says in the Roles and responsibilities paper from the 2 colleges. A bit cumbersome but seem to describe it better than GP specialist

I call myself 'Acting Addiction Specialist (primary care)' because I don't have the qualifications (Masters level qualification iin addicitions etc) to be a specialist (see Roles and Responsibilities for further details) and although I do still do a miniscule amount of GP, I act in my CDT role pretty much as a specialist would do, and I think it would be confusing to others to call myself a GPwSI.

It all sounds very complicated to me. I'm not sure why you are so worried about it. I just say I'm a Nurse - Can't you Doctors just say I'm a Doctor?

no its because consultant training is accredited with a CCST (certificate of Specialist training) its a long and arduous prescribed training package so GPs calling themselves specialists is pretty difficult. Its getting more difficult for hospital doctors too, the PMETB are creating a new grade of sub=specialist hospital doctor most of whom will never progess to full specialist status. Its also getting more difficult to be a GP

I understand people wanting to take further training- that's good.
As regarding titles - who is the title for?

agreed, Simon... some of the titles I have had are meaningless to the people that matter.. so I just put Pharmacist on my badge.. cos that IS what I am..

Ah but we docs are a funny breed -we have to know where we stand in the pecking order or we're unable to function properly!

No but seriously, I must admit I've never thought that hard about what its for, but now that i have, i think it is about lines of accountability, and its for employers as it helps to define competency levels (I guess the old Auxillary/SEN/SRN nurse titles were similar?) and most of all, pay!

Now, if only medics had not opted out of Agenda for Change, pay would match the job, not the person's bits of paper.

quote:

Originally posted by jimjones:
Now, if only medics had not opted out of Agenda for Change, pay would match the job, not the person's bits of paper.

If the RCN had not pushed Nurses to accept AFC then things might have been much better - The Doctors weren't so stupid.

Thankyou for all your responses. I think the job title does sometimes matter if we want people to accept our expertise (commissioners for example, or some GPs). But I have to have something to put at the bottom of a letter and I don't think it should be misleading.

I take the point about specialist training and the CCST; I attended a meeting of consultant psychiatrists where I introduced myself by my official job title and was told rather rudely that I was not a specialist!

Would a nurse consultant call themselves a staff nurse on their correspondence? I think not.

Well, I'm still not sure who I am !

i'm a GPwSI and proud of it. i think "GP specialist" is kind of a contradiction in terms, since a GP is by definition a generalist and general practice is a speciality in its own right. however the "wSI" bit recognises that we have an extra level of expertise and function as "addiction physicians" with the GMS and community-type knowledge that our consultant psychiatrist colleagues may not have, er, may be less familiar with. however where i am our reward for the extra study and training is to be paid *less* than salaried GP's with no specialist qualifications so in the end the label doesn't matter as long as they pay you appropriately and i'd rather have the cash and not the title rather than the title and not the cash!

thats how the title Addiction specialist (primary care) came in, it recognises the background without saying they are actually now a GP. Its cumbersome I know.