Loretta Ford, American Association of Nurse Practitioners co-founder, keynoted the group’s 50-year anniversary convention in June in New Orleans. AANP is based in Austin.[/caption]

An Austin-based organization that represents the interests of nurses nationally turns 50 this year.

The American Association of Nurse Practitioners celebrated its half-century birthday June 9-14 in New Orleans as part of the group’s annual convention. Loretta Ford, one of the group’s co-founders, keynoted the event, which was attended by nearly 6,000 members, AANP board President Ken Miller said.

“Ford is considered the mother of nurse practitioners,” Miller said.

There are 205,000 nurse practitioners nationally, he said, and 61,500 are AANP members. The association has been based in Austin since 1989 when it was called the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners, which merged in 2013 with the American College of Nurse Practitioners to form AANP.

“Practitioners no longer have to choose what organization to belong to,” he said.

Zo DeMarchi, a co-founder of the organization, ran efforts from her house when the group was first established in Austin, according to AANP spokesperson Nancy McMurrey.

“And there was just never any reason to leave,” McMurrey said. AANP’s Austin office now has 41 employees.

AANP follows state and federal policy decisions that might positively or negatively impact nurse practitioners. Miller said the group’s biggest goal is to get all nurse practitioners full practice authority, meaning they do not require a supervisory or collaborative relationship with a physician. So far, 21 states have laws enabling such autonomy, he said, but Texas is not among them.

“Texas is what we call a restricted state,” Miller said. “That’s one of the things our group in Texas is working on—trying to get the legislators to accept the fact that [nurse practitioners] are competent to care for patients.”

AANP did score a recent win in the form of a new federal initiative that allows nurses access to durable medical equipment, such as wheelchairs and oxygen tanks, without needing a physician’s signature. There are similar efforts at the national level to allow more freedom for home-based nurse practitioners.

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