Reducing the Intimidation Factor of Teaching Genetics and Genomics in Nursing

Faculty-related barriers to increasing genetics and genomics content in undergraduate nursing education include knowledge deficits and a limited ability to embrace curricular changes.

Faculty members at one school of nursing participated in an educational program designed to address these barriers and reduce the intimidation of teaching a challenging topic. Participants' perceptions of changes in their knowledge and confidence, as well as the quantity of potential curricular threads identified by participants were used to evaluate the program.

All of the participants indicated the program increased their knowledge of genetics and genomics, and the majority (68.2%) of participants reported their confidence in developing curricular content also had increased. Participants identified numerous potential genetics and genomics-related curricular threads, especially regarding nurses' professional responsibilities.

Faculty education shows promise as a strategy to increase knowledge, confidence, and ability to identify opportunities to increase genetics and genomics content in undergraduate nursing education. [.