Page 1: Reply to Ruth
When considering the rapidly expanding pace of medical and scientific knowledge in global health, it is a reasonable assertion that most health care providers should possess basic knowledge and skills to integrate genetics and genomics in practice. Genetics can be defined as “the study of single gene composition, function, and heredity” while genomics encompasses the “interaction of all genes within the genome and their combined influences on patterns of development and pathologic consistencies” (Sloand, E. et al., 2018). From the perspective of women’s and children’s health, nurses and advanced practice nurses can play important roles in clinical areas involving genomics and genetics such as preconception counseling in obstetric care, newborn screening in pediatric care, and identifying pediatric patients who are at risk for genetic conditions. Patient advocate roles also exist for nurses and include collaborating with interdisciplinary team members to refer patients to genetic services and providing education and community resources specific to certain genetic disorders for patients and families (Zureigat et al., 2022).
Nurse leaders have a critical role to play in bringing the benefits of genomics to everyday healthcare; nurses and midwives account for nearly 50% of the global healthcare workforce but unfortunately, genomic nursing literacy globally appears to be low given only one country (Israel) requires genomic training, and that training is narrow in scope (Calzone et al., 2018). In an attempt rectify this, the Global Genomics Nursing Alliance (G2NA) was established in 2017 to promote nursing in genomics healthcare and to accelerate the integration of genomics across daily nursing practice; the organization’s mission is to support nurses in realizing their full potential through integrating genomics across nursing practice to improve healthcare for all (Global Genomics Nursing Alliance, 2022). This organization has created a “G2NA Roadmap” to provide nurse leaders a strategy and practical guidance for incorporating genomics in daily nursing practice and to highlight leadership tactics to assist nurses in developing policies involving genomics that will ultimately positively transform health care (Tonkin et al., 2020). While exploring the organization’s website, I noticed multiple and easily accessible opportunities to learn more about genomics, such as a listing of nursing and genomics specific societies, blogs, webinars, and publications. Nurses and advanced practice nurses can become actively involved in organizations such as the Global Genomics Nursing Alliance to accelerate the application of genomics into clinical practice which in turn, can improve health for all, through realizing the potential of all nurses in delivering genomic health care.
References
Calzone, K., Kirk, M., Tonkin, E., Badzek, L., Benjamin, C. & Middleton, A. (2018). The global landscape of nursing and genomics. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 50(3), 249-256.
Global Genomics Nursing Alliance (2022). Welcome to the global genomics nursing alliance. https://www.g2na.org/index.php
Sloand, E., Bourguet, A., Engle-Pratt, W. & Bodurtha, J. (2018). Striving for precision: Enhancing genetic competency in primary care nurse practitioner students. Journal of Nursing Education, 53(11), 690-693.
Tonkin, E., Calzone, K., Badzek, L., Benjamin, C., Middleton, A., Patch, C. & Kirk, M. (2020). A roadmap for global acceleration of genomics integration across nursing. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 52(3), 329-337.
Zureigat, B., Gould, D. & Seven, M. (2022). Educational interventions to improve nurses’ competency in genetics and genomics: A scoping review. The Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing, 53(1), 13-20.
Page 2 : Reply to Pete
Genomics is the study of the whole of an individual’s genetic or epigenetic sequence data, with the goal of comprehending the structure and function of these sequences and their downstream biological consequences (“Genomics,” 2020). In healthcare, genomics investigates the interaction of this material with linked health therapies and environmental risk factors. Genetics, on the other hand, is the study of heredity. The primary distinction between genomics and genetics is that genetics is concerned with the function and arrangement of a single gene, while genomics is concerned with the function and configuration of several genes. By contrast, genomics examines all genes and their interactions in order to ascertain their cumulative influence on a person’s development and evolution. Genomic research, it is claimed, may benefit public health by lowering global health inequities via cost-effective methods of illness prevention, diagnosis, and treatment.
Historically, the use of genetics in primary care has aided doctors in determining illness risk based on family history. Today, genomics is employed in a variety of ways, such as personalizing therapy based on genetic information, reprogramming the immune function to fight cancer more effectively, and modifying genes to restore normal cell function (Wysocki, et al., 2018). In primary care, nurse practitioners must understand when genetic testing is appropriate, how it will affect the patient or family members, how to calculate the cost-benefit ratio, and how to communicate the findings to the patient. Because genomic and genetic data are complicated and may have a profound effect on the patient’s condition, practitioners must be attentive to the information’s delivery and how the client absorbs it. Utilizing genomic and genetic data in direct clinical practice entails drawing on biological information about the individual genome and its organizational and functional structures and activities (Hickey, et al., 2018). Clinical experience, on the other hand, may be limited in applying this knowledge to specific instances. Graduate nurses should have enough genetics and genomics knowledge to understand how genetics and genomics connect to and impact their professional practice. Although genetics education and the attainment of competence continue to be key nursing challenges.
Genetic and genomic knowledge is gaining acceptance in health care and clinical practice. The majority of illnesses are influenced genetically and/or genomically by the environment, lifestyle, and other variables. As the most trusted health expert, nurses make a significant contribution to population genetics and genomics and are well positioned to integrate this knowledge into the health care sector. With nurses and professional nursing associations participating in the legislative process, public health initiatives will be more forceful. By being on Institutional Review Boards and other groups that deal with genomes and genetics, nurses can help make sure that studies are done right.
References
Genomics. (2020, November 12). WHO. https://www.who.int/news-room/questions-and-answers/item/genomics.