Living with COVID-19: Voices from the grassroots.

COVID-19 has had a significant impact on the lives of nurses. To capture these experiences, the AANP history committee sponsored a writing contest. The stories, essays, and poems were heartfelt and ranged from personal experiences to future implications. One essay entitled "The Five Stages of COVID Grief: One Nurse Practitioner's Coronavirus Story," captured the essence of the time and is applicable to all nurses as we continue our journey and document our legacy. Using the framework of COVID Grief, this article seeks to outline the shared experience and range of emotions represented in the writing contest submissions. Through this lens, the Year of the Nurse and the toll of coronavirus can be framed by the emotions of disbelief, bitterness, guilt, fear and anxiety, and resilience.

Celebrating our history.

The year 2020 is an historic year on many accounts. It was to be an international year of celebration for nurses and midwives but turned into a year of turmoil with the emergence of the coronavirus pandemic and a call for justice and social awareness. Nurses were in the forefront and demonstrated courage and heroic efforts in the face of devastating events. Advanced practice nurses need to document their stories. This becomes our legacy. In an effort to preserve our legacy, the American Association of Nurse Practitioners history committee is in the process of identifying the existing historical documents for preservation.

Creating a legacy for future generations.

Creating a legacy is an important aspect of professional development. The Fellows of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners legacy award was established to honor nurse practitioners who have led the way throughout their lifetime. Their stories provide a road map for nurse practitioners to continue to lead the way into the future.

Twenty-eight years of experience measuring autonomy using the Dempster Practice Behavior Scale.

BACKGROUND: Autonomy in practice is an important attribute of all professions and a cornerstone of advanced nursing practice. The Dempster Practice Behavior Scale was conceptualized, constructed, and psychometrically tested to make available a generalizable, empirically sound, and useful tool capable of measuring previously unrecognized dimensions of autonomy in practice. Nurse practitioner (NP) practice continues to evolve as new models of care emerge, requiring more autonomy in the NP role. PURPOSE: The purpose was to describe the development and psychometric testing of the Dempster Practice Behavior Scale (DPBS), review the extant research on its use in research on nursing and other professions, and determine where future research is needed on the concept of autonomy in professional practice with a focus on advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs). METHODS: Research articles, theses, dissertations using the DPBS as an instrument to measure practice autonomy were reviewed. RESULTS: Twenty-one unique publications were examined for reports of psychometric properties in various populations. For the APRN population (total N = 1,669 in 10 studies), psychometrics for the DPBS support the reliability of the instrument for research. The remaining 11 studies included 2,285 participants who were not APRNs. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: Questions remain about the relationships between autonomy and external factors such as regulatory environment, practice setting, models of care, years of experience, and practice mix.

The development of advanced nursing practice globally.

PURPOSE: To examine the development of advanced nursing practice globally. METHODS: Data were collected from documentary resources available in the International Nurse Practitioners/Advanced Practice Nurse Network (INP/APNN) of the International Council of Nurses. The areas examined were guided by the "key informant survey on advanced nursing practice self-administered questionnaire." Two core members of the INP/APNN who have rich experience in global advanced nursing development analyzed the data.A total of 14 countries and three regions from five continents were included in the analyses. The development of advanced nursing practice in these areas is facilitated by a need for better access to care in a cost-containment era and the enhancement of nursing education to postgraduate level. The mechanism for regulation of practice is in place in some countries. CONCLUSIONS: Confirms the development of advanced practice in nursing is a global trend. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: APNs can improve global health with points to enhanced education in nursing and regulation of advanced practice.