| dbo:abstract |
Mid-level practitioners, also called non-physician practitioners or advanced practice providers, are health care providers who have a defined scope of practice. The term mid-level refers to the complexity of healthcare situations they handle, not the quality of the care provided. This means that they are trained and legally permitted to provide healthcare in fewer situations than physicians but more than other health professionals. For example, a mid-level provider may be trained for and legally permitted to perform minor surgical procedures, but not trained for or legally permitted to perform complex or experimental surgeries. Because of their diverse histories, mid-level providers' training, functions, scope of practice, regulation, and integration into the formal health system vary from country to country. They have highly variable levels of education and may have a formal credential and accreditation through the licensing bodies in their jurisdictions. In some places, but not others, they provide healthcare, particularly in rural and remote areas, to make up for physician shortages. Their capacity to handle some of the health care workload that otherwise could fall only to physicians leads to the fact that they have often been called physician extenders, but many practitioners reject that label (and in fact also the midlevel practitioner label), advocating for other terms that avoid implication of being lesser than physicians in any way. (en) |
| dbp:synonyms |
advanced practice practitioner, advanced practice provider, advanced practice clinician, advanced clinical practitioner, advanced clinical provider, non-physician practitioner, non-physician provider, physician assistant , nurse practitioner , advanced practice nurse (en) |
