http://jnep.sciedupress.com Journal of Nursing Education and Practice 2020, Vol. 10, No. 1 ORIGINAL RESEARCH A pilot assessment: Integrating a cystic fibrosis simulation scenario to enhance pre-licensure educational understanding of genomics Leighsa Sharoff * Hunter College, United States Received: April 11, 2019 Accepted: September 3, 2019 Online Published: September 18, 2019 DOI: 10.5430/jnep.v10n1p24 URL: https://doi.org/10.5430/jnep.v10n1p24 ABSTRACT Background and objective: Integration of patient simulations into the nursing student curricula have been shown to be effective and innovative teaching enhancements leading to enhanced knowledge, clinical reasoning and judgment for students, whilst promoting optimal patient care. This pilot study aimed to explore how the use of a simulation, with a genetic component of a Cystic Fibrosis (CF) case scenario, improved the self-perceived knowledge comprehension of pre-licensure baccalaureate nursing students of a large diverse urban School of Nursing. Methods: Three assessment surveys were utilized to glean data: nine multiple choice questions explored factual content of CF pre/post simulation; five question survey explored self-perception of knowledge and one open-ended simplified critical incident report provided qualitative data. Results: Twenty-four pre-licensure third year nursing students participated (three groups of eight students). All participants agreed that their understanding of the genetic component of CF improved post simulation. Four major themes emerged from the qualitative data: genomics and nursing; patient education; teamwork exercise and patient-nurse relationship. Conclusions: Integrating a genetically-based condition into a simulation, whereby students are expected to research the condition, engage in patient education, facilitate effective and appropriate nursing care enriches their critical thinking, confidence, skills and knowledge acquisition. Key Words: Cystic fibrosis, Simulation, Patient education, Genomics 1. BACKGROUND Genetically-based healthcare has exponentially transformed the landscape. In order to meet this new learning need, nurse educators need to be innovative and creative with integrating this required core competency into curricula. Cystic Fibrosis (CF) is one condition that can be adapted into simulations to enhance students’ overall knowledge base while promoting safe and effective personalized patient care practice. Nurses have an essential role in conveying genomics and precision medicine advances and advantages to everyday health care. [1] Preparing the next generation of practitioners in the genomic era demands educators to explore new pedagogical strategies for academic inclusion. Nurse educators not only need to educate themselves on genetic literacy, but with an already constrained nursing curricula, educationalists should also be progressive and inventive in how to enhance their students’ genetic knowledge. [2] * Correspondence: Leighsa Sharoff; Email: lsharoff@hunter.cuny.edu; Address: Hunter College, United States. 24 ISSN 1925-4040 E-ISSN 1925-4059