Presymptomatic and predictive genetic testing should involve a considered choice, which is particularly true when testing is undertaken in early adulthood. Young adults are at a key life stage as they may be developing a career, forming partnerships and potentially becoming parents: presymptomatic testing may affect many facets of their future lives. The aim of this integrative systematic review was to assess factors that influence young adults’ or adolescents’ choices to have a presymptomatic genetic test and the emotional impact of those choices. Peer-reviewed papers published between January 1993 and December 2014 were searched using eight databases. Of 3373 studies identified, 29 were reviewed in full text: 11 met the inclusion criteria. Thematic analysis was used to identify five major themes: period befeore testing, experience of genetic counselling, parental involvement in decision-making, impact of test result communication, and living with genetic risk. Many participants grew up with little or no information concerning their genetic risk. The experience of genetic counselling was either reported as an opportunity for discussing problems or associated with feelings of disempowerment. Emotional outcomes of disclosure did not directly correlate with test results: some mutation carriers were relieved to know their status, however, the knowledge they may have passed on the mutation to their children was a common concern. Parents appeared to have exerted pressure on their children during the decision-making process about testing and risk reduction surgery. Health professionals should take into account all these issues to effectively assist young adults in making decisions about presymptomatic genetic testing.

Background Systematic reviews are complex and involve time-consuming, deep research in the academic literature to search, extract data, assess their quality and report the results. Digital tools and software have been developed to simplify different phases of this process but some of these are not free to use. Microsoft Excel is typically accessible to a great many researchers free of charge, so using it involves no further costs. Aim To explain how to use Microsoft Excel to create transparent and complete reports for systematic reviews. Discussion The author’s method includes six steps: downloading the references, preparing worksheets, removing any duplicate references, screening the references by title and abstract, screening the full text of references, and listing the articles for inclusion in the review. Conclusion The Excel method is efficient and free and can produce transparent and complete reports of systematic reviews. It is a valid alternative to the systematic reviews produced by advanced tools and software. Implications for practice The documents produced by this method are a good source for the direct production of scientific texts.

Background: Given the current emphasis on genetics as a relatively new topic in the field of mainstream healthcare, it is interesting to note that authors suggested that genetics should be included in nursing curricula almost fifty years ago. Genetics has been important to the role of nurses in specific specialities for some years. However, some studies reported that the current training with respect to genetics for nurses did not enable them to acquire the necessary skills for their work. The aims and objectives of this review were to examine the available evidence on genetics knowledge of nurses. Methods: We conducted a systematic review. A search of British Nursing Index, CINAHL, Embase and Medline databases was undertaken for papers published in English between January 2001- September 2011. Six studies satisfied the inclusion criteria. Resukts: In three of the six studies included, the authors analysed the nurses’ perceived knowledge in genetics while in only two studies the authors measured actual knowledge. However, both perceived and actual knowledge of genetics was poor. The amount of genetics education delivered to nurses in these studies was low overall. Conclusions: However, while genetic content is lacking on educational programs the findings confirm that nurses are open to genetics education and that this should be in a form that enables them to apply genetic principles to their everyday healthcare experience. In particular, integration between science and practice is required to enable nurses to fully utilise genetics for the benefit of patients. It is clear that further educational initiatives are required to equip nurses to practice safely and effectively in the post-genomic era.