Facilitating faculty competency to integrate genomics into nursing curriculum within a private US University

Abstract

Background: This quasi-experimental study explored full-time nurse faculty competency in genomics and genetics using a validated measure prior to and following educational sessions during one academic semester. The findings represent the researchers' efforts to educate nurse faculty and to support their competency in genomics and genetics as information shared with students is only as robust as faculty knowledge. Methods: Faculty who consented to participate completed the Genomic Nurse Concept Inventory (GNCI©) to measure their knowledge of the concepts surrounding genomics and genetics prior to the education intervention and then following all three education sessions. The education sessions were carried out over a semester using a lunch and learn forum. Results: Our first assumption was that 50% of faculty would score below 70% on the pretest. Eligible nurse faculty 29/48 (60%) completed the GNCI and scores show they had limited knowledge in three areas: nomenclature of genes and gene function, inheritance patterns, and the clinical application of genomics to human disease. Over half of nurse faculty 17/29 (59%) scored less than 70% on the GNCI© supporting our first assumption. The second assumption that over 85% of faculty would score at least 70% on the GNCI© after the education was not supported. The education sessions improved scores on the GNCI© in the 12/29 (41%) faculty who completed the measures prior to and after the intervention. Conclusion: Despite the growing knowledge about genomics/genetics and the application to clinical practice, health professionals like nurses are not competent in these concepts. Nursing faculty require competency in genomics and genetics in order to integrate these concepts in nursing curricula. Outcomes of this project show the need to provide education and support for nurse faculty in genomics and genetics.

Current State of Genomics in Nursing: A Scoping Review of Healthcare Provider Oriented (Clinical and Educational) Outcomes (2012–2022)

“…There are two sub-domains within this Cochrane outcome. Approximately three-quarters of identified articles (96/126, 76.2%) relate to the "knowledge and understanding" sub-domain [22,[26][27][28][29]35,36,45,49,50,54,56,[59][60][61][63][64][65][66][67]69,71,72,74,81,87,88,92,93,95,98,99,102,105,106,[108][109][110][111]113,117,118,[120][121][122][123]125,127,128,134,1...…”

“…There was consistent, steady, and nearly linear growth of nursing genomics publications relating to "healthcare provider oriented outcomes" with an average of 11 ± 3 articles (median: 12) articles published each year from 2012 to 2022 (Figure 2). Geographically, nearly half of studies (60/126, 47.6%) [22,[26][27][28][29]31,[34][35][36]38,42,43,45,49,50,54,56,[59][60][61][63][64][65][66][67][69][70][71][72][73][74]79,81,84,87,88,[92][93][94][95][98][99][100]102,105,106,[108][109]…”

Avaliação do Conhecimento dos Acadêmicos de Enfermagem em Genética/Genômica sobre o Câncer de Mama

“…Aqui, identificou-se um alto números de acertos sobre os conceitos de genética e genômica entre os acadêmicos de enfermagem, com maior destaque da IES privada em detrimento à pública (p=0.0045). Embora O Saber de Estudantes de Enfermagem em Genética/Genômica um estudo tenha revelado resultados semelhantes sobre o reconhecimento da aplicabilidade clínica desses conceitos 12 pelos acadêmicos, há possibilidade de que esse conhecimento seja residual do segundo grau 20 . Além do mais, a distribuição da carga horária teórica e prática depende da teoria de aprendizagem adotada pela instituição 21 .…”

Leading Canadian Nurses into the Genomic Era of Healthcare

“…1. The need for education to address genomic literacy Globally, the low genomic literacy levels of faculty, health administrators, nursing educators and point-of-care nurses is cited as a key barrier to the integration of genomics into nursing education (Bashore et al 2018…”