Nursing Education in Genetics in Taiwan, Republic of China

Abstract

It has become increasingly clear that genetic factors can cause direct or indirect disease. To integrate genetics into nursing education and practice to encourage nursing personnel to “think genetically” is not only important but imperative. Nurses, depending on their educational preparation and job descrip-tion, play avariety of roles in helping the clients and families affected by a genetic disorder. The purpose of this study was to understand the degree to which the nursing curriculum has included the study of genetics in nursing education in Taiwan. At the same time we explored those barriers which militate against integrating the study of genetics into our nursing curriculum. The findings reveal that the amount of genetic teaching increases as the educational level rises. On the university level, 80% have integrated genetics into the nursing curriculum, with the junior nursing college level at 77.8% and the vocational school level at 60%. Four barriers to include genetics into nursing education are: lack of qualified teachers, lack of qualified genetic counseling practice sites, students difficulty with the content and time limitation. More effort must be put into nursing education to enhance the teacher’s ability, increase the availability of reference books in Chineses and revisethe required nursing curric-ulum thus promoting the study of genetics in nursing education.