I hear it left and right here at Western States.
"You'll be a great doc."
"I know a doc who…"
"Try to get out there and meet as many docs as you can."
Doc.
I'm not quite sure why, but that word just rubs me the wrong way. It makes me want to say,
Doc, doc… doc… GOOSE!
Why would I want to be a doc when I could be a doctor?
Something about doc just strikes me as unprofessional, as if it is less than a doctor. (And I seem to hear it said in the voice of Bugs Bunny.)
I must admit that a lot of nicknames seem to bug me, like using "Turkey Day" instead of Thanksgiving, or when I introduce myself as Nathan and people say, "Nice to meet you, Nate." And at school, in particular, I find myself cringing when we use abbreviations like SCM instead of Sternocleido Mastoid, "post" or "ant" instead of "posterior" and "anterior" (that one seems to be a Canadian thing). And especially "Rad Anat" instead of Radiographic Anatomy. (Although, I do like saying "Radio Anatomy." Maybe I just have something against consonants.)
I'm not even sure I plan to have my patients call me Doctor once I'm in practice. It's not that I don't think chiropractors deserve to be called Doctor. Sure, we're not medical doctors, but neither are dentists or university professors. I feel like Doctor has a connotation of authority which increases the interpersonal distance between you and your patient.
And for some reason, I feel that space is somehow… defiled by using the word, Doc.