physician extender

physician extender (plural physician extenders)

1. A person who extends a physician's oversight to a larger patient population than would otherwise be reasonable (by relieving the physician of much of the work done for, and time spent with, each patient); physician assistants and nurse practitioners can both provide this extension.

The terms physician extender, mid-level provider, and mid-level practitioner are sometimes deprecated as implicitly deprofessionalizing toward nurse practitioners and physician assistants;[1] whenever the latter (more specific) terms can be gracefully used instead, they not only avoid this connotation but also specify roles more precisely.