Genomics and Nursing Practice: Advancing the Nursing Profession

The remarkable advances in genetics and genomics over the last three decades have necessitated initiatives on the part of all healthcare disciplines to assist providers in applying this new knowledge in practice. Nursing has responded by planning and implementing a number of projects that address the challenging issues created by genetic and genomic advances. This article presents an overview of the considerable progress made in sequencing the human genome, progress that has provided the opportunity for the remarkable advances we are seeing in healthcare today. It also describes how various professional healthcare groups and associations are working together to enhance nurses’ understanding of this genomic revolution, thus paving the way for nurses to develop core competencies, and enabling them to incorporate genomic advances into their daily nursing care. The American Nurses Association Code of Ethics for Nurses is presented as a framework for responding to these rapidly occurring changes. Two case studies illustrate how nurses are applying the emerging science and technology in genetics and genomics to advance the nursing profession and provide competent nursing care to patients faced with genetic and genomic healthcare concerns.