There is growing worldwide interest in using family pedigrees to assess health risks for diseases and implementing potential preventive interventions for health promotion. Nurses have been identified as key professionals in the process of collecting family history information and constructing pedigrees, and there is a gap in the literature related to these activities. The purpose of this study was to determine nurses' knowledge about, attitudes towards, perceived ability to use, and educational preference related to inclusion of family pedigrees in clinical practice. The study utilized a survey method with 174 nurses and correlational descriptive design. Results showed 74% of the nurses were interested in learning about family pedigrees and 64% responded positively to including them in clinical practice with the belief by 88% that they are helpful for preventive health care. Findings may be used to advance education and utilization of family pedigrees for nurses in clinical practice.

These nurses had positive perceptions of the use of family pedigrees in clinical nursing practice. They identified a need for education and stressed the importance of specialty-specific case examples to maximize relevance.

Genomics information will make it possible to identify individuals who have, or are at risk to develop, health problems and to diagnose and treat them in ways that until recently were not possible. The majority of nurses in practice today do not have adequate knowledge about genomics. This article describes a diverse and extensive education program initiated to provide information to nurses. Important aspects to consider for all nursing genomics education programs are that they need to be relevant to practice, multifaceted, and ongoing as information continues to unfold about the human genome and application to healthcare.