Genetic knowledge possessed by American nurses and nursing students.

As diseases of genetic origin have increased their impact on society's health, nursing's role has also increased. Nurses may not be referring those needing it for genetic counselling or prenatal diagnosis and may be inadvertently giving patients erroneous information based on lack of knowledge. A questionnaire was used to examine the overall adequacy and specific knowledge in the more commonly encountered genetic disorders such as sickle cell disease, Rh disease and Down's syndrome. It also included interpretation of risk and basic knowledge. The sample consisted of 366 senior nursing students and 114 practising nurses. Student programme type was consistently related to score. Age was also important in the degree of knowledge manifested. Only 19 (4.2%) of the respondents demonstrated over-all adequate knowledge. These results indicate a need to raise the consciousness and knowledge of nurses about human genetic disorders before serious repercussions result from inappropriate and inadequate counselling, health teaching and referrals.