Competencies of genetic nursing practise in Japan: A comparison between basic and advanced levels

Abstract

Aim: The purpose of this study was to identify the competencies of genetic nursing practise required for general and genetic nurses. Methods: We conducted a four-stage survey using a Delphi process. We conducted an interview with 27 nurses who were involved in genetics-related care and extracted 89 items in seven categories. In the second survey, we mailed a questionnaire to 20 experts in genetics. In the third and fourth surveys, we asked 491 health-care providers, including nurses and physicians, who were involved in genetics-related care and agreed to participate in the study at 113 institutions in 40 prefectures. The respondents were asked to choose one of three options in each of 89 items: "A: General nurse's role", "B: Genetic nurse's role", and "C: Not appropriate as the nurse's role". The data were collected from August 2000 to March 2001. There were 295 final subjects, and the response rate was 60%. Results: The competencies required for general nurses were identified as "living support", "psychological support", and "identification of the client's wishes", while those required for genetic nurses were "provision and exchange of accurate genetic information", "referral to and collaboration with other organisations", and "client support to understand disease." Conclusions: These results suggest a direction for genetic nursing curricula. It is our challenge to incorporate genetics into the education programming.

The Global Landscape of Nursing and Genomics

“…Otherwise, the integration of genomics into nurse training was ad hoc and varied widely based on the country, with some countries reporting no genetic or genomic content included in training. Three countries indicated existence of genetic/genomic competencies applicable to all nurses regardless of clinical role, level of training, or specialty: Japan (Arimori et al, 2007); United Kingdom (Kirk, Tonkin, & Skirton, 2014); United States (Consensus Panel on Genetic/Genomic Nursing Competencies 2009; Greco, Tinley, & Seibert, 2012). Building on U.K. work, interprofessional competencies are available for European countries for primary, secondary, and tertiary (defined as genetic specialist) care (Skirton, Lewis, Kent, & Coviello, 2010).…”

Genetics‐Genomics Competencies and Nursing Regulation

“…Nursing competencies for delivery of genetic‐genomic health care have been defined through a consensus process with those working in specialist genetics services and encompass basic (required of all nurses) and advanced levels (required of genetic nurses; Arimori et al, 2007). These guidelines are promoted by the Japanese Society of Genetic Nursing for clinical and research use.…”

A systematic review of nurses’ knowledge of genetics

“…In addition, specialist genetic nurses currently work in many countries, including the United Kingdom (UK) [3] , Japan [4] and the United States [5] . However, as there is increasing evidence that genetics will change the practice of medicine and mainstream health-care [6,7] , all nurses must understand genomic information and the concurrent skills and attitudes to enable them to incorporate these changes for patient benefit [8,9] .…”