Barbara Sharief files bill to clarify use of nursing titles

Democratic Sen. Barbara Sharief has filed legislation for the coming Session that she hopes will bring more clarity to the work she does outside the Capitol.

The bill (SB 36) would amend a state law governing nursing titles. It would provide that only people who hold a Florida nursing license or compact multistate license may use the titles “Doctor of Nursing Practice” (DNP), “Doctor of Philosophy” (Ph.D.) or other such titles authorized under the Nurse Practice Act while practicing nursing.

Under the proposal, anyone with such a doctoral degree who uses the word “doctor” or the pre-name abbreviation, “Dr.,” must also state their profession.

It’s an issue close to Sharief, a former Broward County Mayor with more than three decades of experience in the health care industry. She earned her DNP in 2017, and since she took state office last year, she has sponsored multiple bills focused on the field of nursing.

She told Florida Politics that she encountered some confusion about nursing titles when she arrived in Tallahassee as a freshman lawmaker, and SB 36 is an attempt to clear it up.

“When I got up here, people were saying, ‘Oh, they don’t want nurse practitioners to use their doctor title,’” she said.

“And I said, ‘Why? We are clearly identifying ourselves as what we are. You earn that degree, so why can’t you just use the title, but use it appropriately?’”

Sharief said part of the conversation about nursing titles sprung from legislation focused on the overlapping interests of ophthalmologists and optometrists, the latest in a series of measures over the years that insiders have dubbed the “eyeball wars.”

“I just said, ‘I want to make it clear that nobody’s trying to impersonate a physician,’” she said. “We’re all qualified for what we’re doing, and I felt this was the clearest way to do that.”

The DNP title designates its holder as someone with the highest levels of clinical practice and leadership in the nursing field. A Ph.D. title in the nursing field, meanwhile, denotes a terminal academic degree that focuses on nursing science, research and scholarship, not direct patient care.

SB 36 follows multiple legislative attempts by Stuart Republican Sen. Gayle Harrell, Orlando Democratic Rep. Johanna López and former Lecanto Republican Rep. Ralph Massullo to bar non-physicians from using “doctor” or “Dr.” to describe themselves unless they clearly specify their professions.

Those bills and another proposal last Session by Winter Haven Republican Sen. Colleen Burton and Tampa Republican Rep. Karen Gonzalez Pittman, which also failed to pass, stirred pushback from nurse practitioners, audiologists and other non-physician clinicians. Critics of the legislation argued they are highly trained and that the restriction would unfairly erase their credentials or mischaracterize patient relationships.

SB 36 has been referred to the Senate Health Policy Committee, Committee on Health and Human Services and Rules Committee.

Sharief said Tallahassee Democratic Rep. Gallop Franklin, a pharmacist in private life, will carry the bill’s House companion.

The 2026 Legislative Session begins Jan. 13. Interim Committee meetings are ongoing.