We show you the differences between a doctor and a doctor, because although it may not seem like it, they are completely different terms that refer to two topics little related to each other.
According to the Ministry of Education, the Spanish University System hosted more than one and a half million students in 2016. This is not a negligible figure if we take into account that 9.65% of the Spanish population is between 15-24 years old (2,458,486 men and 2,299,523 women).
Thus, it is common to ask, in such a broad terminological and academic world, the differences between the different professions that can be exercised and the titles that these training periods entail: graduated in ESO, baccalaureate, bachelor’s degree, doctorate … etc. Of course, it is very common to get lost.
One of the most common confusions in the collective imagination is the fact oftreating the positions of “doctor” and “doctor” indistinctly. This is partly because the literal English translation of a person practicing medicine is indeed the word doctor.
So why are they two different words? What does each of them mean? Here we present the main differences between doctor and doctor to settle this discussion in a simple and didactic way.
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“Doctor” and “doctor” are not synonymous
As we have said before, the term doctor and doctor are usually used interchangeably because one of the words is a literal translation of the other in the English language.
But nothing could be further from the truth: the essential difference can be summarized in that a doctor is a person who has achieved the highest possible academic degree, while a doctor is an individual who has successfully passed the formative degree of medicine. A doctor can have completed any degree, a doctor only medicine.
We are talking about water and oil, two completely different terms but at the same time complementary, because a doctor can be a doctor, but not all doctors are doctors much less. We explain ourselves in the following lines, because below we show you in the most friendly way possible the 3 differences between doctor and doctor.
1. A doctor refers to an academic degree, a doctor to a profession
First of all, going to dictionaries is always a good tool to elucidate terminological differences between words. According to the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE), a doctor is defined as “a person who has received the highest university academic degree”. This same body, on the other hand, summarizes the medical term in the following lines: “person legally authorized to practice medicine”. Beyond the definitions “of the book”, what does this mean?
An academic degree is a distinction given by an educational body, usually after successful completion by the student of a particular program of study. Due to the Bologna process (promoted in 1999), efforts have been made at European level to generate a convergence in the terms and student stages, so that a graduate can move indistinctly through the different EU countries with the same professional integrity. This initiative has not been without criticism (for the lack of funding for common integration, for example), but this is another matter. In general, we can summarize that there are the following student cycles:
- Undergraduate studies: primary education, ESO and baccalaureate.
- University degree.
- Postgraduate studies: master’s and doctorate.
All this preliminary explanation contextualizes the fact that a doctorate is the maximum academic level that is contemplated in the framework of the European Union, regardless of whether the professional has focused on the medical field or not. On the other hand, the doctor is a person who has finished the degree in medicine, simple as that.
2. Not all doctors are doctors
At this point it is essential to emphasize that a doctorate, in Spain, is a process that requires 3 to 5 years in general, and that in order to enter it it is required to have previously completed a master’s degree.
It is a general mistake to think that all doctorates are focused on the field of medicine or physics, but there are several types. For example, a doctorate in research is one that requires the defense of a thesis based on original research by the student to be passed.
Thus, the term “original research” does not apply only to a medical professional who wants to discover the role of a hormone on uterine cancer, since both a biologist studying the humidity levels necessary to maintain the offspring of a toad and a sociologist investigating the effects of social networks on a population group are, Indeed, original research. The discovery goes beyond classifications of numbers and letters, something we must not forget.
On the other hand, there are doctorates focused on the professional specialization of the individual beyond original research (professional doctorate). For example, a person with a medical degree can specialize in diseases of the skeleton and muscles to acquire the title of Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (DO), an affirmation that expands to many more disciplines: pediatrics, dental medicine, dental surgery, pharmacy… You will imagine that the list is very extensive.
In addition to this and to confuse things even more, not all professional doctorates are focused on a specialization in the medical field , since a specialist in law or psychology can also decide to cultivate in a specific subject to obtain this higher academic level.
It is noteworthy that, according to studies, 57% of doctors stay working in the university environment, while only 4% are referred to the public administration. Although we are not reductionist, we can say that these data show that the figure of the doctor is much more associated with the teaching environment than that of a doctor.
What do we get clear from these lines? In summary, a doctor can be a specialist in medicine, a biologist, a sociologist or any profession that lends itself to the approach and execution of original research. On the other hand, a doctor can reach the level of doctor through a doctorate of professional specialization, but again, this level is not only limited to health professionals.
3. A matter of figures
We have already been giving clues throughout the previous paragraphs, but as you can imagine, a doctoral degreealways requires more time than a medical degree.
Whatever the university career, the standard number of years to obtain the degree is four courses. Later it is time to do a master’s degree, which usually lasts from one to two years. Finally, we have the doctorate itself, a process that covers three to five years, depending on whether the student opts for a full-time or part-time modality. This adds up to a total of at least eight formative years.
On the other hand, the medical career is the great mastodon of the training blocks, since it has an average duration of six years on its own to obtain the title of graduate, that is, of doctor. Although it has a longer duration than the rest of the careers, only numerically we can say that it takes longer to be a doctor than a doctor. On the other hand, if a doctor also wants to be a doctor, he can already prepare, because his training cycle can be easily extended to 10 years or more.
Therefore, in a purely academic field and in order to avoid tensions, a person who has passed the degree of medicine should not refer to himself as “doctor”, because involuntarily he is attributing a longer student career than the one studied. A medical graduate is not a doctor. If you want to be, you have to do a PhD.
Summary
As we have seen, the main differences between doctor and doctor can be summarized in the following sentence: a doctor is a person who has reached the maximum level of academic recognition, while a doctor is a person who has successfully passed the degree of medicine. Not all doctors are doctors nor are all doctors doctors.
After seeing the arduous path of a doctorate (more if the student lacks a scholarship to finance it), we are not surprised to learn that only 0.8% of the Spanish population between 25 and 64 years old has this degree in their hands. That is not why we want to devalue a person who has successfully passed the degree of medicine, because we remember that the average cut-off grade to enter the degree is very high (located at 12 out of 14 in Spain in general) and the function of the doctor in our society is essential. In both cases, without any doubt, we are facing two figures who are student prodigies.
References
- Doctors or doctors? Elsevier.com. Collected on October 4 at https://www.elsevier.com/es-es/connect/estudiantes-de-ciencias-de-la-salud/medicos-o-doctores#:~:text=S%C3%B3lo%20tienes%20que%20pensar%20en,m%C3%A9dicos%20se%20los%20llama%3A%20m%C3%A9dicos.
- Doctorates: ten years at the university to be a researcher for 1,100 euros per month, eleconomista.es. Collected on October 4 at https://www.eleconomista.es/ecoaula/noticias/8923957/02/18/Doctorados-diez-anos-en-la-universidad-para-ser-investigador-por-1100-euros-al-mes.html#:~:text=El%20n%C3%BAmero%20de%20estudiantes%20en,m%C3%A1ster%20y%2055.628%20un%20doctorado.
- Terms related to the subject, Dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE).
To the classic question “what do you do?” I always answer “basically I am a psychologist”. In fact, my academic training has revolved around the psychology of development, education and community, a field of study influenced my volunteer activities, as well as my first work experiences in personal services.