Evaluating interventions that have been developed to improve NICU nurses’ genetics awareness: A mixed methods systematic review
Abstract
Abstract
Introduction
A set of genetics core competencies for nursing have recently been developed, but the interventions for developing genetics awareness and knowledge in practice has not been evaluated.
Purpose
The aim of this review was to identify interventions that have been developed to improve NICU nurses’ awareness of genetics and to evaluate the effectiveness of these interventions.
Method
This systematic review Cochrane approach used thematic analysis to categorise and identify the main interventions that have been used to develop NICU nurses’ awareness. Excel and MAXQDA pro were used to analyse the data.
CINAHL, Medline, EMBASE, Cochrane, and MIDIRS were used to search for relevant studies. Inclusion and exclusion were based on 5 criteria (Research type, Research language, publication date, Participant type, and country), also, JBI tool were used to critique all included papers.
Result
A total of 40 studies were recovered; 10 papers met the inclusion criteria. Six themes were found: ‘Awareness and perception’, ‘Education’, ‘Knowledge’, ‘Practice skills’, ‘Confidence’, and ‘Leadership’. Although nurses were less confident about performing genetics in their clinical practice, as their high genetic knowledge increased, their academic level increased, and nurses became more aware of the importance of genetics in nursing. However, poor interventions were found to improve genetics nursing, so leadership and education were considered the most effective interventions to develop nursing awareness of genetics. No recent studies have measured these interventions in some critical units that deal with genetic conditions, such as NICU nurses.
Conclusion
Leadership role as first intervention plays an important role to integrate genetics/genomics into nursing and raise nurses’ awareness about genetics/genomics. Additionally, encouraging nurses internationally to activate research in genetics/genomics because of the lack of research in this field. International genetics nursing institutions should help develop nursing roles in Middle Eastern areas and encourage their nursing leaders to establish their own genetics nursing institutions to lead nurses in this area.
Keywords
Genetic, genomic, interventions, challenges, competencies, NICU nurse, staff nurse, and registered nurse.