Do surgeons wish to become doctors?

To gauge opinion among otolaryngologists about their wish to retain the title Mr, Miss, Ms or Mrs or to adopt the title of doctor.

An e-mail questionnaire sent to all members of ENT-UK (The British Association of Otolaryngologists-Head and Neck Surgeons), who had registered an e-mail address with the ENT-UK secretariat.

The specialty group of otolaryngologists in the UK.

723 recipients of e-mails, who were members or fellows of a surgical Royal College and, by convention in the UK, entitled to adopt the title Mr, Miss, Ms or Mrs.

304 recipients of the e-mail questionnaire responded. 39% were not aware of any proposals to change the convention, addressing surgeons as 'doctor' in the future. Overall, 61.8% were in favour of retaining the current convention and retaining the title Mr or a female equivalent. Applying the null hypothesis that most surgeons would not like to change a title, the chi(2) test produced a highly significant P value of 0.0002. Of female respondents, however, only 43% supported retention of the current convention. Using Fisher's exact test to compare female and male respondents, the two-sided P value was highly significant at 0.006, with female respondents favouring the title of doctor.

A large proportion of ENT surgeons in the UK responded to the questionnaire. They were unaware of proposals to change the current convention of address for surgeons. A significant number of those responding were in favour of retaining the current convention. The small proportion of female respondents indicated a preference for being addressed as 'doctor'.