Nurses Can Help ‘Demystify’ Genetic Testing Results

Genetic testing results can have numerous implications in cancer care—from targeted treatment regimens to the need for family members to get tested. Oncology nurses are in a prime position to help guide patients through the process, according to Susan Sabo-Wagner, MSN, RN, OCN, NEA-BC.

Sabo-Wagner is the vice president of Clinical Innovation for American Oncology Network. In a recent interview with Oncology Nursing News, she discussed the importance of genetic testing in cancer care today, and how nurses can help “demystify” the results for patients and their loved ones.

Transcript

Oncology nurses have a really wonderful position, and they play a pivotal role in guiding patients through this process. They also support them and are helpful in understanding and utilizing the response to the results … certainly through patient education. Really, patient education can only come after really understanding the difference and how these tests work. And I think it's really important that nurses take the time to really understand what it all means. It is complex. It can be complex, but I don't think that we need an advanced degree in the genome project to be able to understand enough to support our patients by explaining the purpose.

Why are we doing what we're doing? What are the benefits? What are the limitations of genetic testing and understanding? What's the difference between getting families tested for genetic mutations vs having a tumor tested for genetic mutations and then helping to identify “Can the candidates for testing?” Because sometimes, the nurses spend way more time with patients than maybe a provider will, and so understanding that if it's a familial genetic test that may need to be done, helping to identify that and get that information.

And then, of course, providing emotional and psychosocial support, because there's a lot of anxiety that comes with this. Historically, we've heard things like, “Well, what will happen if my insurance knows that I carry this gene?” …

And from an interpretation standpoint, nurses alone, cannot specifically interpret results. That's more of the role of the genetic counselor, or it requires a certification specifically for that. But you can help translate the data … I go back to the BRCA genes to clarify what that means in terms of treatment, and what that means in terms of why the precision medicine selection is being done, and helping to understand family choices—why they would want to get tested for those particular things, and what we all do as nurses, advocate and resource, helping out, advocating for access, because these tests are not available to everyone, even though they should be …

Then [there is] helping to provide resources. Where is the support group for this particular mutation? It's cancer diagnosis and treatment. Isn't like it used to be. It isn't, “I have breast cancer, therefore I need to go to a breast cancer support group.” We can get so much more specific if we help them and guide them, and some skills that nurses have, and we just know this, we have a strong ability to communicate.

Being able to kind of demystify what these concepts mean really can help engage our patients and help them understand we have empathy. [Nurses are] born that way. And so, we can really address when patients are very nervous or scared, and then we have the clinical knowledge, and if we really just kind of study up just a bit more on what these concepts mean, we can really be great advocates for them.