Effect of Educational Empowerment on Student Nurses’ Knowledge, Practice, and Attitude toward Genomic Counselling

Context: All over the world, the increased awareness of the importance of early diagnosis of genetic diseases has given them priority in primary health care. However, more recent surveys indicate that genetics content is still lacking in nursing curricula. Aim: Evaluate the effect of educational empowerment on student nurses' knowledge, practice, and attitude toward genomic counseling. Methods: Quasi-experimental (pre/posttest) design was utilized to collect the data of this study. The study was conducted at the Faculty of Nursing affiliated to Ain Shams University. The subjects were all available adolescent nursing students who enrolled in the pediatric and obstetric course in the third year. The study sample was composed of 340 nursing students. Researchers used a self-administered questionnaire that includes characteristics of subjects and the assessment of knowledge, attitude, and practice of students. Results: 47.65% of the studied students had poor knowledge at the pre-educational program phase. In comparison, 55.88% had good knowledge at the post educational program, with a highly significant difference at p-value <0.01. There was a highly significant difference between studied students' attitudes toward genetic disease, health history benefits, genetic examination benefits, genomic counseling, follow-up, and decision-making process domains at pre and post-educational program at p-value <0.001. Also, the results reveal that 79.41% of studied students had unsatisfactory practice at the pre-educational program, while 70.59% of them had satisfactory practice at post educational program. There was a highly positive correlation between knowledge, practice, and attitude of studied students about genomic counseling at the pre-educational program. Conclusion: Educational empowerment positively affected adolescent nursing students' knowledge, attitude, and practice regarding genomic counseling. The study recommended continuous training for adolescent nursing students about genetic counseling to prepare them for their future roles. Future studies are needed to examine the relationship between knowledge, attitude, and practice of adolescent nursing students regarding genomic counseling.

ON THE WILLINGNESS OF LEGAL ENTITIES CONDUCTING GENETIC TESTING TO BECOME SELF-REGULATORY ORGANIZATIONS IN THE JURISDICTION OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION

The issues of the formation of self-regulatory organizations in the provision of medical services to the population are considered. Among the self-regulatory organizations, there are practically no organizations in the field of genomic counseling. The issue of prospects for the emergence in the Russian Federation of organizations providing services for decoding the genome (exome) based on the principles of self-regulation and in accordance with Russian legislation is discussed. The necessity of forming an association of specialists in the field of genomic research is expressed.

Early Outcome Data Assessing Utility of a Post-Test Genomic Counseling Framework for the Scalable Delivery of Precision Health

Information on patients’ preferences is essential to guide the development of more efficient genomic counseling service delivery models. We examined patient preferences in the context of use of a post-test genomic counseling framework on patients (n = 44) with chronic disease receiving online test reports for eight different diseases and one drug-response result. We also explored patients’ disease risk awareness, recall of test report information, and confidence in knowing what to do with their test results. Prior to the post-test genomic counseling session, all participants viewed at least one test report; 81.6% of available test reports were reviewed in total. Participants requested more phone (36) than in-person counseling sessions (8), and phone sessions were shorter (mean 29.1 min; range 12–75 min) than in-person sessions (mean 52.8 min; range 23–85 min). A total of 182 test reports were discussed over the course of 44 counseling sessions (mean 4.13, range 1–9). Thirty-six (81.8%) participants requested assessment for additional medical/family history concerns. In exploring patient experiences of disease risk awareness and recall, no significant differences were identified in comparison to those of participants (n = 199) that had received in-person post-test genomic counseling in a parent study randomized controlled trial (RCT). In summary, a novel post-test genomic counseling framework allowed for a tailored approach to counseling based on the participants’ predetermined choices.