Nurses' Responses to Our Genetic Future
On July 1, 2002, Francis Collins, M.D., Ph.D., Director of the National Human Genome Research Institute at the National Institutes of Health presented a plenary speech at ANA convention entitled, "Our Genetic Future." In the course of his remarks, Dr. Collins pointed out, that given the recently completed map and sequence of the human genome, "it is likely that the major contributing genes for diabetes, heart disease, cancer, mental illness, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease, asthma, etc. will be identified within the next 5-7 years." These discoveries in turn will lead to dramatic changes in the ways in which these diseases are diagnosed and treated. Five questions were posed to our nurse audience at the end of his speech.
In summary, 69.2 % of our audience agreed that genetic science will impact the practice of nursing. 64.4 % do not view themselves as competent to provide care that integrates genetics, but 59.7% think that insurance companies should include coverage for genetic tests. Slightly over half of the nurses in our audience (58.9%) would opt to learn more about genetics in a workshop format and 69.4% felt that, all in all, nursing school curricula need a major overhaul in order to accommodate genomic health care. Clearly based on these responses, there is considerable consensus that nursing needs to gear up to meet the genetic challenges of our time. The question that we face now is whether we and health care providers in general can become genetically literate in time? ANA's continuing work with the National Coalition for Health Professional Education in Genetics (see www.nchpeg.org) has genetic literacy as our goal but strategic action on a number of professional fronts will be needed as we move forward!