Genomics in pre-registration nurse education: A narrative review

To identify and synthesise research on the development of nurse genomics education.

It is becoming increasingly recognised that all nurses require an understanding of genomics. Nurse education must equip nurses with genomic literacy. This review explores the development and provision of genomics across international pre-registration curricula to highlight areas of importance and gaps.

Narrative review.

Following systematic searches in Embase, MEDLINE, the Cochrane library, CINAHL, the British Nursing Database, PubMed and Maternity & Infant Care, qualitative, quantitative, mixed-methods studies, systematic reviews, literature reviews, commentaries, editorials and reports from 2002, were included. Titles and abstracts and full texts were screened by two reviewers. Data were extracted on key concepts in the literature including approaches to teaching, links to practice and assessment, using a pre-defined tool but flexibly including inductive categories. Findings were thematically analysed and synthesised using a narrative review approach to provide a summary and critical discussion of the literature.

315 results were screened and 65 texts were reviewed. The largest number of papers were published in 2011 (n = 12). Most papers were published in North America (n = 47). Five themes relating to pre-registration genomics nursing education were created and explored. These were: Approaches to integration, Pedagogical approaches, Application to practice, Approaches to assessment and Approaches to evaluating education.

Further guidance is needed for faculty on the effective integration of genomics, teaching and evaluation. Further research into the effectiveness of teaching strategies could contribute to standardised guidance.