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PubMed2026

Genomic science and the nurse educator's role: Promoting integration from curriculum to clinical practice.

BACKGROUND: Registered nurses and nurse educators play a critical role in preparing future clinicians to translate genomic discoveries into practice. However, emerging evidence suggests that both groups may lack sufficient knowledge and confidence in genomics, potentially limiting their ability to teach, mentor, and apply genomics in real-world settings. This gap is especially concerning in Aotearoa New Zealand, where the genomic literacy of nurse educators and clinicians remains underexplored. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to: (1) assess nurse educators' genomic literacy and confidence in teaching genomics; and (2) evaluate registered nurses' knowledge and confidence in applying and teaching genomics in clinical practice. DESIGN: Exploratory descriptive qualitative. SETTING: This study was conducted in the greater Auckland area. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 17 participants were recruited using purposive sampling to ensure a diverse range of perspectives across varying levels of teaching experience, disciplinary backgrounds, and exposure to genomic content. METHODS: Data were collected using semi-structured focus group interviews, a method well-suited for generating in-depth discussion and facilitating interaction among participants with shared professional interests. The collected data were analysed using thematic analysis methods. RESULTS: The findings offer insight into the preparedness of New Zealand's nursing workforce to engage with genomic-informed healthcare and inform strategies for integrating genomics into nursing curricula and continuing professional development. Given the interdisciplinary nature of genomic healthcare, these insights may also be relevant to other health professionals-including midwives, pharmacists, and allied health practitioners-who increasingly encounter genomic information in clinical practice and require foundational competencies to support patient care. CONCLUSION: Addressing this educational gap is critical to ensuring that nurses-key facilitators of patient care and public health-are equipped to deliver safe, equitable, and evidence-based genomic healthcare.

Humans↗

PubMed2026

Identifying General Practitioners, Nurses, and Pharmacists Training Needs in Precision Medicine: A Survey Study.

INTRODUCTION: The clinical advances of precision medicine, elevating clinical decision-making through use of genetic and genomic data, lifestyle, and environment factors, is improving patient outcomes. Health care professionals report they are not competent or confident to deliver precision medicine to patients. To design continuing education for advanced practice nurses, general practitioners, and pharmacists, this research investigates perceived knowledge, importance, and self-efficacy in precision medicine. METHODS: Items were informed from results of a literature review and focus group study. A one-sample t test was used to compare differences for each item toward the theoretical neutral value (indifferent in our case, to number 3). To analyze differences between professions, parametric analyses of variance (ANOVA) was used. RESULTS: A lack of time, further complicated by a lack of knowledge about precision medicine services, and how to safely share patient data, with a perceived limited network of professionals in precision medicine were reported. Respondents demonstrated low confidence in precision medicine topics while indicating a willingness to pursue training aimed at improving their genetic and genomic competencies. Participants rated topics as only slightly important to their current professional roles. No significant differences were found across professional groups. DISCUSSION: Flexible formats for continuing education aligned to needs are required to target the knowledge and skills gap in precision medicine. Improved knowledge on topics including ethics, legal frameworks, and precision services is needed. Effective educational interventions aimed at enhancing the confidence and competence of health care professionals are essential to making precision care a reality for patients.

CPD↗

PubMed2026

Exploring the perceptions, experiences, and behaviours that nurses and midwives face in relation to sleep: A systematic review of qualitative evidence.

BACKGROUND: The importance of sleep for nurses and midwives is increasingly being recognised. Poor sleep is known to have negative impacts on physical health, mental wellbeing, and work performance. This has prompted efforts to promote and support staff sleep. However, further efforts are needed to understand how nurses and midwives consider and manage sleep to ensure that meaningful and effective interventions are adopted and sustained. AIMS: This review of qualitative evidence aims to examine nurses' and midwives' perceptions, experiences, and behaviours around sleep. METHODS: This review followed JBI's systematic meta-aggregative approach including development of an a priori protocol. A systematic search of six electronic databases (MEDLINE, Embase, Emcare, PsycINFO, CINAHL, and Scopus) was undertaken to identify qualitative studies that examine nurses' and midwives' perceptions, experiences, and behaviours related to sleep. The search was conducted on the 10th of October 2024. Study selection, quality appraisal, data extraction, and synthesis followed JBI approaches and the ConQual approach was used to report assessment of synthesised findings. RESULTS: Thirty-three studies were included for review, and 245 findings were aggregated into 24 categories and nine synthesised findings related to the perceptions, behaviours, and experiences. While sleep was perceived as important, poor sleep was often understood as an expected and inevitable part of the job and that there was a need to always be awake to provide continual care. Experiences influencing sleep related to personal circumstances and work-related factors, as well as professional training and institutional practices. A range of behaviours, including planning time to sleep, using sleep aids, modifying the sleep environment, and altering daytime behaviours were also described. CONCLUSION: This review identified a range of perceptions, behaviours, and experiences that may influence the sleep of nurses and midwives which are vital to supporting individual and workforce wellbeing and safe, effective clinical practice. Insights from this review can be used to better understand nurses' and midwives' relationship with sleep and to develop and enhance targeted sleep interventions and programs that aim to promote and support healthy sleep among nurses and midwives. Open Science Framework Registration: 10.17605/OSF.IO/F32UM.

Humans↗

PubMed2026

(Re)imagining the Future of Genetic Counseling: A Reflexive Qualitative Analysis of Sociopolitical Power, Cultural Safety, Systemic Racism, and Comparative Practice in the United Kingdom, Aotearoa New Zealand and, Australia.

Genetic counseling is undergoing a rapid transformation as genomic medicine becomes embedded within mainstream healthcare systems. At the same time, the profession is being challenged to respond to systemic racism, colonial legacies, technological change, and evolving expectations regarding equity and justice. Historically, genetic counseling emerged within twentieth-century medical genetics and was influenced by political, social, scientific, and medical forces that included eugenic ideology, values, and practices. The profession has since evolved substantially toward psychosocial, patient-centered, and non-directive models of care. Contemporary debates regarding "newgenics" or "neugenics" further demonstrate how concerns regarding equity, reproductive ethics, disability, and genomic stratification continue to shape genomic healthcare discourse. This qualitative reflexive practice paper explores how systemic racism, colonial legacy, cultural safety and structural power shape genetic counseling practice in the United Kingdom (UK), Aotearoa New Zealand and Australia, and how these forces continue to reshape the profession's future identity. A reflexive, narrative, and comparative qualitative approach was employed, grounded in the authors' lived professional experiences across UK and Australasian contexts and informed by purposively selected policy, professional and scholarly literature relating to cultural safety, dignity, anti-racism, and Human Rights-Based Decision-Making. Through iterative reflexive dialogue, comparative analysis, and thematic synthesis, four interrelated themes were developed examining sociopolitical context, systemic racism, cultural safety and technologization within contemporary genetic counseling practice. Comparative analysis identified substantial differences in how culturally responsive practice is conceptualized and operationalized across settings. In Aotearoa, cultural safety is strongly shaped by Te Tiriti o Waitangi, bicultural accountability, and Māori sovereignty frameworks. In Australia, culturally safer genomic care has increasingly developed through Indigenous-led initiatives and workforce reform, including the Australian Alliance for Indigenous Genomics (ALIGN). In contrast, UK practice remains largely situated within equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) frameworks that may insufficiently address systemic racism and structural power within increasingly diverse populations. Reflexive clinical examples demonstrated how inequities may emerge through undocumented patient values, standardized pathways, assumptions regarding autonomy, and misinterpretation of culturally specific communication styles. Re-imagining the future of genetic counseling requires more than just technological advancement. It requires reflexive engagement with dignity, inequity, and the sociopolitical realities of the populations served. These insights re-imagine a culturally grounded, socially responsive future for genetic counseling in an era shaped by genomic mainstreaming, digital transformation, artificial intelligence and workforce reform and one in which the profession remains ethically anchored, relationally attuned, and committed to justice-oriented practice.

Humans↗

PubMed2026

Investing in Canada's nursing workforce: a comprehensive review to inform policy innovations and directions.

BACKGROUND: Health systems worldwide face persistent health workers challenges including nursing shortages, workforce strain, and inequities. In Canada, these challenges have prompted renewed national and provincial reforms to strengthen recruitment, retention, leadership, and sustainability. This paper compares nursing workforce policy directions across Canada, and international jurisdictions to inform policy and planning. METHODS: A cross-country comparative analysis of policies building on a comprehensive national funded review that included an umbrella review of 69 systematic reviews, a comparative policy review of nursing workforce strategies in five jurisdictions, and validation through national horizon-scanning and policy dialogues (n >100). Evidence was analyzed across system, organizational, and individual levels. RESULTS: At the system level, international jurisdictions demonstrate comprehensive, legislated approaches integrating data, governance, and multi-year funding have advanced key nursing strategies. In Canada, the advances show the importance of strategies to have national and provincial/territorial alignment emphasizing leadership, flexibility, and inclusion as key levers. Organizational and individual-level reforms such as mentorship, leadership development, and wellness initiatives are expanding but remain variably evaluated. Experts identified national workforce data strategies and policy integration with embedded evaluation as key enablers to inform scalability and sustainability of implemented strategies. CONCLUSIONS: Canada's nursing workforce reforms are advancing toward coordinated, equity-driven, and evidence-informed strategies. Continued investment in evaluation, leadership, and national integrated data systems along with integrating nursing workforce planning within broader intersectoral planning will consolidate these gains and position Canada as an international leader in sustainable nursing workforce policy.

Canada↗

PubMed2026

Artificial intelligence in molecular diagnostics for pandemic preparedness.

INTRODUCTION: Molecular diagnostics focusing on the detection and analysis of nucleic acids are indispensable tools for early pathogen identification, transmission monitoring, and genomic surveillance during pandemics. Recent technological advances have broadened the diagnostic landscape, incorporating PCR-based methods, isothermal amplification, high-CRISPR-based amplification detection, and sequencing. Despite their diagnostic potential, widespread implementation remains limited by high validation costs, time and logistical constraints, the need for specialized professional knowledge, and a lack of adaptability in resource-limited settings. Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly recognized as a promising but challenging approach, offering tools that streamline assay development, automate data interpretation, and optimize real-time diagnostic performance. AREAS COVERED: This review introduces recently published AI tools with potential to enhance the in-silico design validation process of oligonucleotides for molecular assays. These cover tools for initial assay design and optimization to validation and continuous assay updates. The limitations, including concerns regarding data accuracy, the lack of transparency in data processing ('black box' models), and unresolved licensing and regulatory issues, are highlighted for each tool and as expert opinion. EXPERT OPINION: Collectively, these challenges currently confine most AI-based approaches to research settings and prevent their routine implementation in clinical molecular diagnostics. Their widespread adoption depends on addressing remaining technical, regulatory, and practical challenges.

Humans↗

PubMed2026

Global reach and sustained engagement of a structured digital education program in medical mycology: an observational analysis of the 2025 ESCMID-EFISG webinar series.

OBJECTIVES: Evaluate the 2025 European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases-European Fungal Infection Study Group webinar series to assess digital education as a scalable, equitable model for global professional development in medical mycology. METHODS: This observational study analyzed Zoom metadata across 17 webinars (January-December 2025). Metrics included registration, unique viewers, peak concurrent views, attendance rate, and duration. RESULTS: The series recorded 4631 registrations and 1372 unique participants. Median live attendance was 199 (interquartile range [IQR] 138-269), with a 39.3% attendance rate (IQR 33.7-47.5%) and peak concurrent viewership of 165 (IQR 106-229). Median session duration was 108 minutes. Webinars engaged a median of 60 countries (range 26-89) simultaneously, spanning 128 countries globally. Faculty comprised 67 unique experts from 23 countries with balanced gender representation (52.8% men, 47.2% women), of whom 16.4% (n = 11/67) were affiliated with institutions in low- and middle-income countries. CONCLUSION: Structured digital programs achieve wide global reach and sustained engagement. Strong participation in long-form sessions supports implementing Continuing Medical Education accreditation and unrestricted on-demand access to enhance global health equity.

Antimicrobial resistance↗

PubMed2025

Precision diagnostic and therapeutic interventions in rare genetic neurodevelopmental disorders.

Neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) include a broad spectrum of phenotypes spanning from intellectual disability (ID) to developmental delay (DD) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD). As neurodevelopmental phenotypes are a common presenting feature of an underlying genetic condition, professional medical organizations recommend genetic testing for all individuals with a NDD. When testing is pursued, identified genetic differences can lead to personalized clinical management with early diagnosis supporting the development of surveillance and intervention for co-occurring adverse health outcomes. Despite this, barriers to testing have prevented individuals from receiving a genetics referral and testing. Current therapeutic modalities including small molecule drugs, gene therapies, and antisense oligonucleotide therapies have emerged and shown promise in preclinical trials with therapeutic drugs gaining FDA approval. However, translational challenges are extensive, especially for identifying biomarkers of drug effects in the CNS. In this review, we discuss diagnostic approaches and clinical utility of genetic testing for rare genetic neurodevelopmental disorders, emerging development of individualized therapies, and progress for current therapeutics in addition to challenges with clinical translation and delivery. We will highlight opportunities for early diagnosis and treatment that are steadily gaining ground in favor of optimizing long-term health outcomes and improving quality of life for neurodiverse individuals. IMPACT: The path from genomics to therapeutics for neurodevelopmental disorders continues to present multiple opportunities and challenges. While emerging genome-wide sequencing and gene editing technologies deliver increased diagnostic yields and alternatives to life-long small molecule therapies, clinical translation has been challenging due to inherent cost and genetic heterogeneity. Limited access to genetic testing despite practice guidelines remains a barrier towards precision therapeutics for rare neurodevelopmental disorders, while pre-clinical investigations face obstacles when translating to human subjects. This review will summarize the impact of existing successes in diagnosis and therapeutics for neurodevelopmental disorders while highlighting ongoing challenges and areas of future opportunities.

Humans↗

PubMed2026

One brain, one mind: A joint EPA-EAN leadership perspective on brain health.

Neurology and psychiatry have operated as separate disciplines for over a century, yet this division reflects historical and institutional developments rather than the underlying biology of the brain. Contemporary neuroscience shows that brain and mental health disorders share genetic susceptibilities, inflammatory and metabolic pathways, environmental and social risk factors, and clinical features that cross diagnostic boundaries. Cognitive, emotional, sensory, and motor symptoms regularly appear across both neurological and psychiatric populations, and conditions such as seizures, psychosis, mood disorders, cognitive disorders, and sleep disorders are common to both. A brain health framework addresses this reality by treating the brain as a single biological organ whose function emerges from the interplay between genome and exposome - including stress, trauma, social context, existential meaning, pollution, and physical health - and which underlies perception, behaviour, cognition, emotion, resilience, and vulnerability. Translating this perspective into practice requires coordinated action across domains. Clinically, collaborative models such as joint neurology-psychiatry consultations and shared outpatient pathways can be implemented within existing resources to improve diagnostic clarity and continuity of care. In training, a more harmonised curriculum with shared foundations in neurobiology, joint seminars, and cross-rotations would equip clinicians with a common language while preserving specialist depth, and support the emerging fields of preventive neurology and preventive psychiatry. In research, organising studies around shared mechanisms and symptom dimensions, and launching joint funding calls, would enhance translational relevance and reduce duplication. To realise this vision, sustained leadership from European professional bodies is essential to establish collaboration as a shared professional standard.

Humans↗

PubMed2026

Digital and computational morphology in hematology: current platforms, clinical evidence, and future requirements.

INTRODUCTION: Morphologic examination of peripheral blood and bone marrow remains central to the diagnosis and classification of hematologic disorders. Conventional optical microscopy, however, is labor-intensive, dependent on operator expertise, and affected by interobserver variability. Digital morphology has developed from automated image acquisition and cell pre-classification into a broader field that includes whole-slide imaging, remote review, quantitative morphometry, and artificial intelligence-based analysis. CONTENT: This review examines current applications of digital morphology in peripheral blood, bone marrow aspirates, malaria detection, and body-fluid analysis. Commercial platforms are evaluated with particular attention to the distinction between raw automated pre-classification, expert digital post-classification, and comparison with independent optical microscopy. Digital systems generally perform well for common mature leukocyte populations but remain less reliable for rare or diagnostically critical cells, including blasts, abnormal lymphoid cells, plasma cells, and intermediate maturation stages. Research systems increasingly extend analysis from individual-cell classification to whole-slide, specimen-level, and patient-level assessment. SUMMARY: Digital morphology can improve standardization, image traceability, remote consultation, education, proficiency testing, quality assurance, and selected aspects of laboratory workflow. Its clinical value depends on appropriate validation, transparent reporting of reference methods, recognition of algorithm-specific failure modes, and clearly defined criteria for expert review and conventional microscopy. Human expertise remains essential not only for validating results but also for adapting cell taxonomies and interpretive rules to evolving classifications of hematologic diseases. OUTLOOK: Future progress will require representative multicenter datasets, harmonized morphologic terminology, external validation, interoperability with laboratory information systems, and continuous monitoring after software or hardware updates. Integration of morphology with quantitative hematology, flow cytometry, cytogenetics, genomics, and clinical data may support more comprehensive computational diagnosis. Digital platforms may also broaden access to specialist expertise, training, and quality programs in resource-limited institutions and regions, provided that infrastructure, governance, and professional competency are adequately supported.

artificial intelligence↗