Do as Someone question

Question

"There's work we can do as doctors to improve the experience for families as well as patients."

Hello, I want to know what "do as doctors" means.

I have no idea why "as" is placed there and what it has to do with "doctors" and "do" and that's what is making me confused.

"As such" is not the same as my question since it means "therefore".

...That's to say, your text could be rephrased to We are doctors, and as such we have work we can to... The relevant definition for as being in the capacity, character, condition, or role of (example: He works as an editor). — FumbleFingers, Commented Aug 14, 2019 at 14:01
Can I understand us "We are doctors, and there is things we can do what would doctors do because we are doctors to improve the experience of others. — Anungoo Goo, Commented Aug 14, 2019 at 14:40
Absolutely! Your English in the preceding comment has a few "mistakes", but it's obvious you understand how as is being used in the example you asked about. You might like to also think about contexts like As your doctor, I must advise you to take the medicine I've prescribed, but as your friend I must say that because of the likely side-effects it would probably be better not to. That's to say, you can even refer to yourself or someone else in two different "roles" within the same utterance. — FumbleFingers, Commented Aug 14, 2019 at 15:37

Canadian Yankee · Accepted Answer · 2019-08-14 14:27:01Z

2

If you look at the definition of as, you'll find this:

Definition of as (Entry 4 of 9)

...

: in the capacity, character, condition, or role of

This is exactly the sense of as that is being used in your example:

There's work we can do in our role of doctors to improve the experience for families as well as patients.

answered Aug 14, 2019 at 14:27

Canadian Yankee

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Can you explain it more in-depth because I'm confused about "in our role of".
– Anungoo Goo
Commented Aug 14, 2019 at 14:29
1

As doctors or in our role of doctors function as adverbial phrases, modifying the predicate "[work that] we can do to improve ... ". The implication is that because we are doctors, we can improve this, or that we can improve it by doing what doctors do.
– Colin Fine
Commented Aug 14, 2019 at 16:02

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