Free Essay

Genetics in Health Care

In: Science

Submitted By menenkassa
Words 765
Pages 4
Critical reflection

In last four months, I have learned a lot of new information. I have come to believe taking genetics course is very crucial for a nurse. We discussed a lot of interesting genetic cases in classroom which improved my knowledge about the basic concepts of genetics, about role of the environment in genetic diseases, and about various risk factors associated with genetic diseases. By taking this course I now identify how to construct a family pedigree that can be used to take detailed family history in a clinical setting. I have learnt that family history not only holds important information about an individual’s past but can so be used to predict the future health of patients. Information from family history can be used as a diagnostic tool and help guide decisions about genetic and screening tests for the patient and family members at risk. An accurate family history will be important to establish a pattern of transmission.
The genetic course has also made me think about my own family history. I do know that my grand father died of colon cancer and my other grand father died of type 1 diabetes. I know that this type of common diseases can run in families, because of this I was a little concerned about the fact that my parents and siblings including myself could be affected by it. However, taking this course helped me to conduct genetic risk assessments for our family based one the lessons I learnt from the course. This has enabled me to have a better understanding of the actual risk of developing these diseases. Instead of my prior misconception that it is guaranteed that the my father will get a colon cancer due to the fact that his father had a colon cancer, I now know that the risk is not 100%. Given that my grandfather developed the colon cancer late in the his life, it is possible that he has a sporadic disease rather not necessarily hereditary. I am now able to alleviate the fears of parents regarding genetic diseases by answering their questions in the light of my newly acquired knowledge. I would also like to mention that it was fascinating to learn about many genetic disorders. Many of disorders are negative mutations however I was very surprised when we discuss about sickle cell anemia and malaria resistance. I came from East Africa, as a result realizing the connection between sickle cell anemia and malaria made more sense to me as I grew up hearing a lot of sickle cell anemia and malaria issues. I was amazed when I got to know why sickle cell is more prevalent in East Africa and African decent individuals in general. I learnt that the explanation for the high prevalence of sickle cell disease in Africa is because patients heterozygotes for the sickle cell gene are protected against the danger of dying of malaria while patients who don’t have sickle cell gene die from the lethal effects of malaria. (Ana Ferreira, et al., 2004). It is interesting to learn that the coexistence of sickle cell disease and malaria in Africa is evolutionarily linked. During the discussion of Ethical cases I learnt that nurses are increasingly involved in the genetic testing process, helping the patient understand the purpose and also explain the risks and benefits of the genetic test, as part of the informed decision-making and consent process. Most of the cases we discussed were very interesting and a bit challenging as well. For instance, the scenario of the patient who has 47,XXY karyotype (Klinefelter’s) is a case in point. The fact that he has a son and his son might not be from him is poignant. The dilemma of whether to inform him about paternal genetic test or not is certainly not easy. Through the discussion, I learned that it is important to analyze the moral and ethical dilemmas and psychosocial issues related to genetics. In light of this learning, I will use the knowledge I learnt from this class to improve my personal health and will be able to contribute to a better public health.
References
Ana Ferreira, Ivo Marguti, Ingo Bechmann, Viktória Jeney, Ângelo Chora, Nuno R. Palha, Sofia Rebelo, Annie Henri, Yves Beuzard, Miguel P. Soares. (2004) Sickle Hemoglobin Confers Tolerance to Plasmodium Infection.Cell,Volume 145, Issue 3, 398-409, 29 April 2011 DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2011.03.04
Pauling L, Itano HA, Singer SJ, Wells IC. Sickle cell anemia, a molecular disease. Science. ;110:543–546. doi.o/10.1126/science.110.2865.543

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