What is the APA rule for citing twenty-plus authors?

For an APA citation with twenty-plus authors, you definitely do not have to write out every single name in your text. For your in-text citation, you simply write the first author's last name followed immediately by et al. and the year, even on the very first mention. The reference page gets a little unique, though: you list the first nineteen authors' names, insert an ellipsis (three dots), and then add the final author's name without an ampersand. I completely understand why you're stressed about this, especially with English not being your first language and a major nursing capstone on the line. Navigating strict style guides feels like trying to memorize a hundred tiny, arbitrary rules all at once, but you are doing the right thing by checking. Think of the reference list rule like taking a giant group photo where the first nineteen people get called by name, and then the camera just pans across the crowd to catch the very last person who helped lead the project. Just take a deep breath, plug in that first author for your in-text citation, format the reference entry with those nineteen names plus the last one, and know that you're well on your way to finishing this capstone strong.