Background
Genomic informed nursing care a fairly new topic in Europe. The global research activity at the field active and genomic information as part of individualized medicine and precision care is quickly leading to many scientific breakthroughs.
Genomics have been a part of medical research for some time, but has been almost completely absent from nursing research. Currently, genomic information is already used in cancer treatments, and it has been studied a lot in connection with the prevention and treatment of folk diseases.
Citizens are purchasing commercial genetic tests (direct-to-consumer tests), and they need guidance to understand the information they receive. Future nurses must have competency to respond to this fast developing area of nursing work, and therefore the skills of healthcare professionals must be developed.
Goal and Aims
In Europe, there are no jointly agreed competency goals for genomic information in nursing education. Therefore, nurses need genomic information literacy and ethical competence to be able to guide patients with genetic diseases and their relatives. This enables a decision-making process based on patients’ researched information.
The main goal of the GenoNurse project is to:
- create a generic genomic informed nursing care education and competence model for nursing education in Europe.
- establish a GenoNurse community, where nursing students, teachers and healthcare professionals can together increase their knowledge and competence about genomic information.
- conduct GenoNurse Roadmap to assist implementation of genomic informed nursing care curriculum.
This 3-year project will finish at the beginning of 2025, and it’s key activities will lead to reaching milestones of published literature reviews of best practices, design and development of GenoNurse Model through theory base and piloting experiences.
Quality assurance and Dissemination and exploitation activities run throughout the project. Each partner institution has a lead on one GenoNurse work package. Tampere University of Applied Sciences has the overall responsibility of project management.
Impact
The curriculum enhanced with genomic informed nursing care content will benefit both nursing education and professionals in clinical fields. Good knowledge of genomic information enables high-quality care in this new and sensitive area of nursing work.
By increasing the competence of nursing educators, the competence needs of future nursing workers can be met. This enables high-quality care and shared decision-making between patients and professionals.
Funding
The GenoNurse project is funded by Erasmus+ Cooperatuve Partnership Programme. More information about the programme can be found at the EU website.
Partners and co-operators
The consortium consists of four European higher education institutions from Finland, Italy, Slovenia and Ireland:
Tampere University of Applied Sciences (TAMK), Finland, project coordinator.
University of L’Aquila (UniVAC), Italy.
University of Ljubljana (UNILJ), Slovenia.
University College Corr (UCC), Ireland.
