Introduction
The previous and the current evolvement for technology in the nursing/ medical field gives the practitioners, patients, service providers, and other stakeholders hopes of future development of more advanced technologies. The envisioned technologies will enhance the delivery of healthcare, address the nursing shortages challenges in Canada and other countries, as well as minimize the post-hospital recovery time. Therefore, this paper discusses a prophesied technology in ICT that will improve nursing services and extend patients’ lives.
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An Envisioned Future Information and Communication Technology
DNA Fingerprinting or Genetic Fingerprinting could be introduced in the patient treatment in the future.
Green (2020) defines “DNA fingerprinting” as a ‘laboratory technique’ employed to establish the relationship between a suspect during the criminal investigation and the biological evidence. It involves the comparison of the suspect’s DNA sample to the DNA sample obtained from the crime scene. If there are mismatches in the obtained DNA profiles, the evidence cannot be used to pin the suspect.
How will DNA fingerprinting be used in the medical field?
The nurses and other medical practitioners will use Genetic Fingerprinting to trace the relatives of patients, trace the spread of diseases in the community, diagnose inherited disorders, enhance data security/ patients’ privacy and develop their cures or treatment procedures.
The impact to client care associated with DNA Fingerprinting.
Betsch (n.d) suggests that Genetic Fingerprinting will help in patients’ identification and tracking of their relatives. Some patients visit hospitals without caretakers, making challenging to trace their relatives even during critical conditions. Since every individual’s tissue or organ contains the same “DNA fingerprint” (Betsch, n.d), hospitals will seek permission to start collecting fingerprints from all patients and other people visiting their premises. The gathered samples could be for future use if a need arises to trace patients’ relatives or dead persons. In circumstances where the patients are in critical conditions, using DNA Fingerprinting to identify their relatives will enable physicians and nurses obtain more information about their medical history to facilitate the treatment process.
How will Genetic Fingerprinting improve the quality of care?
DNA gathering will offer a superior method of grouping blood and records of the patients. While visiting hospitals, especially more than once, patients may not need to carry any of their previous diagnosis or treatment records. They will only place fingerprints on the hospitals’ biometrics for the medics to retrieve their data. Besides, patients’ fingerprints could also strengthen their data and privacy security. Even medics or service providers may lack access to patients’ data without the latter’s approval or consent.
Further, as suggested by the University of Leicester (2022), DNA Fingerprinting technology will enhance research in the medical field. For instance, the technique is currently used in investigating cancer and genetic conditions like Huntington’s disease (the University of Leicester, 2022). If fully integrated into the healthcare system, medical research experts will use Genetic Fingerprinting to advance their investigations into the causes of some diseases, possible spread patterns, reactions to treatments, and the possible cures of some chronic illnesses.
For the case of bedside treatment, Genetic Fingerprinting will allow patients to access their hospital data while at home in a more secure manner. The technology will involve creating electronic accounts for patients and hospitals that former can access via the internet. It implies that patients will not necessarily be required to travel to hospitals if they want any medical history information. Besides, physicians and nurses will use DNA data to trace the locations and understand the well-being of their patients without meeting them physically unless called for. Access to patients’ data from their homes will not compromise the privacy of other patients since everyone only has one DNA can to logon into their accounts.
Actions required for the successful integration of DNA Fingerprinting into nursing practice.
Firstly, the nurses should be offered the required education or training on how the technology works and ways of using its appropriately. They training should cover aspects like collecting and storing samples of cells from the patients using swabs from the latter’s mouths, roots of their hair, skins, sweat, semen, and saliva (Medical Device News Magazine, 2021). Training nurses on the proper DNA storage without interruption will enhance accuracy in data gathering across generations and foster improved nursing care services delivery. For instance, nurses should be trained on the process of DNA analysis, such as RFLP (Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism).
According to Medical Device News Magazine (2021), RFLP is the first approach used to analyze DNA. It measures the DNA strands’ length with reoccurring base pairs. Also, hospitals should nurse should be trained on VNTRs (variable number of repeats) to understand the nature of repetitions that could occur anywhere between one (1) and thirty times (Medical Device News Magazine, 2021). Nurses should train in other processes, including STR (short tandem repeat) and PCR.
Besides, the hospitals and other healthcare providers should purchase the required machines to analyze and store the DNA results. For instance, the required laboratory equipment for the technology includes a thermostatic cycler used in PCR testing, a regular DNA testing method. DNA analyzer for use in detecting the presence of particular “nucleotide sequences” (Medical Device News Magazine, 2021). Other lab equipment for DNA testing and analysis includes Electric and Dyes fields, DNA isolation kits, and PCR (polymerase chain reaction) machines. If the hospitals purchase and install all the aforementioned equipment/ machines, the integration of DNA Fingerprinting will become viable in the future of the medical field.
Conclusion.
As technology evolves, introducing the envisioned DNA Fingerprinting or Genetic Fingerprinting in the medical field will substantially transform service delivery in the healthcare sector. The technology is currently employed in criminal investigations to establish the correlation between suspects and scene of crimes’ biological evidence. If introduced in the medical field, DNA Fingerprinting will allow the healthcare providers to trace the relatives of the patients and strengthen security on patients’ data and privacy. However, for successful integration of Genetic Fingerprinting in healthcare setting, hospitals should provide proper training or education to the nurses on the process and equipment used in DNA gathering, analysis, and storage.
References
Betsch, D.F. (n.d). DNA fingerprinting in human health and society. Iowa State University Office of Biotechnology.
Green, E.D. (2020). DNA fingerprinting. National Human Genome Research Institute. https://www.genome.gov/genetics-glossary/DNA-Fingerprinting#:~:text=DNA%20fingerprinting%20is%20a%20laboratory,evidence%20came%20from%20that%20suspect.
Medical Device News Magazine (2021, June). What Kind of Equipment is Used to Analyze DNA? A Digital Publication for The Practicing Medical Specialist, Industry Executive and Investor. https://infomeddnews.com/what-kind-of-equipment-is-used-to-analyze-dna/
University of Leicester (2022). Genetic fingerprinting explained. About DNA. https://le.ac.uk/dna-fingerprinting/explained
