What is the effect of genetics on critical care nursing and why is it important to understand the impact genetics has on your practice?

Critical care nurses have seen the influences of genetics on their practice in many ways since the 1980s. These influences have been especially apparent since completion of the Human Genome Project in April 2003, leading to phenomenal advances in the practice of medicine in reference to genetics. Critical care nurses are seeing noticeable changes in patient care that will increase in the future. Because of these changes, understanding the science behind current advances is increasingly important so that the advances can be applied appropriately to critical care practice.

What must be more fully understood are the sciences of genetics and genomics. Genetics is the study of single genes or groups of genes.1,Genomics is the study of an organism’s genome, which is all the...

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