I’m with those who object to the confusion. I don’t object to a nurse doing a strep swab (if that’s within the scope of practice) and I don’t object to an NP diagnosing bronchitis and prescribing a Z-pack (again, if that’s what he or she is licensed to do) but it’s the credential creep that bothers me. At my primary care doc’s office it isn’t a problem- it’s a huge practice, well defined “lanes” and you know who does what under whose supervision.
But there’s an urgent care clinic near me which seems very much out of whack (DNP’s whose name tags don’t match what their colleagues call them, which is “Doctor Brown”; nurses wearing what used to be considered the “doctor’s uniform”, etc.) And don’t get me started on folks like dieticians who have doctorates in early childhood education and the like who insist on being called “doctor”. You see them in a medical setting– it used to be safe to assume that “Doctor Brown” was a physician.