Given the way our healthcare system is organized with profit driven private insurance, and so people know who is treating them, I would suggest we have clearer designations - MD, NP and PA most people would not be well informed. So why not something like Medical Level 1, 2 3? Actually Medicare coding makes a distinction between high level, moderate level , low level decision making for when one sees an Specialist vs someone else.
I found the following definitions on differences
Nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants (PAs) are both important roles in healthcare, but they have some key differences, including:
• Training model - NPs train using the nursing model, while PAs train using the medical model.
• Specialization - NPs often specialize in a patient population, such as family, pediatrics, or women's health. PAs are trained as generalists, but can specialize in an area of medicine, such as emergency or internal medicine.
• Practice authority In more than half of US states, NPs have full practice authority, meaning they can work independently. PAs always work under a doctor's supervision.
• Education - NPs typically complete six to eight years of education, including undergraduate and graduate-level training. PAs need a master's degree and patient care experience
A nursing model training focuses on a holistic approach to patient care, considering the patient as a whole person and their environment, while a medical model training primarily focuses on diagnosing and treating the disease itself, with a more biological and disease-centered perspective; essentially, nursing looks at the "whole person" while medicine focuses on the specific pathology causing the illness