Ethical Nursing Care in Genetics and Genomics
QUESTION
Scenario
As the Chair of your organization’s Ethics Committee you are offering professional development for the nursing staff during a lunch-and-learn session that focuses on the interdependence of genetics, genomics, and ethics. You are expecting good attendance for the presentation since free lunch will be provided. To guide your session you will create a concept map for a genetic or genomic condition for an at-risk individual or population that you are interested in.
Instructions
Make sure to include the following components in the concept map:
Description of the genetic or genomic condition
Specific genetic and genomic assessment considerations
The potential impact of genetic and genomic information on clients and families
Ethical and legal considerations
Scope of nursing practice in relation to genetic and genomic considerations
Ethical Nursing Care in Genetics and Genomics
ANSWER
Ethical Nursing Care in Genetics and Genomics
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Course Name and Number
Instructor’s Name
Due Date
Sickle Cell Anemia Concept Map
Description of the genetic or genomic condition
Sickle cell anemia is a genetic disorder of the blood that occurs as a result of inherited abnormal hemoglobin. It occurs as a result of mutation in the beta gene of hemoglobin in chromosome 11The abnormal hemoglobin results in the formation of sickle-shaped red blood cells which are weak, delicate and subject to rapture. These sickle-shaped red blood cells end up decreasing as a result of hemolysis resulting in a type of anemia known as sickle cell anemia. It is the most common inherited blood anemia that is most prevalent among black Americans and the Hispanic community. From research, one in five hundred births in the black Americans is affected by sickle cell anemia
Common Symptoms
• Fatigue
• Bacterial infections
• Dactylitis
• Lung injury
• Heart injury
• Stunted growth
• stroke Risk Factors
• Black Americans
• Family history of the condition (genetics)
• Sickle cell anemia exposed to high altitudes
• Hispanic people
Specific genetic and genomic assessment considerations
Assessment of sickle cell among affected individuals requires a blood test to determine the form of hemoglobin composed in an individual. Before the assessment, care providers should consider symptoms and duration of pain, past chest crisis history, hydration, and signs of infection, neurological examination, blood group, and urine cultures, respiratory examination, and provoking factors such as fever of an individual among others.
Related Complications
• Jaundice
• Worsening wounds
• Pain crisis
• Kidney, brain, heart, lungs, and spleen damage
• Death
The potential impact of genetic and genomic information on clients and families
• It is essential to know and acknowledge that genetic information has an impact not only on the patient but on their families in terms of physical health, psychological, and social well-being.
• The impact the diagnosis of sickle cell anemia has on a patients and their families is the influence on medical management as well as the emotional reactions such as feelings of fear, guilt, and helplessness.
• Care providers should help patients and families when dealing with this kind of information and assist guide a course of action to reduce stress and optimize benefits.
Ethical and legal considerations
When managing sickle cell anemia among individuals, care providers often face several ethical dilemmas most on the importance of pain and its treatment. The care provider’s duties regarding pain management vary among different providers and their relevant health institutions. Different ethical standards should be observed when managing pain among different patients with this condition keeping in mind their perceptions regarding the same. Care providers must educate patients and their families about the influence sickle cell anemia might have on their health and manage their responses to reduce health risks, optimize health, and promote wellness.
Common Ethical and Legal Considerations
• Informing the patient of the advantages and side effects of certain medications.
• Ensuring patient’s full consent.
• Ensuring the confidentiality of any piece of information shared is observed.
• Promoting patient autonomy.
• Educate patients and their families about the influence sickle cell anemia might have on their health.
Ethical Nursing Care in Genetics and Genomics