Impact and Implementation of Expanded Carrier Screening

Carrier Screening is an important component of genetic health care for family planning, and a pillar of prevention and precision medicine. Advances in technology can now provide individuals with knowledge related to their risk of having children with genetic disorders prior to pregnancy and can impact patient decisions regarding family planning. This information can be critical for the health of a child since some disorders are amenable to early treatment in the neonatal period. Family planning takes place in both the primary care and obstetric setting. Nurses are key educators in both of these arenas and are ideally poised to help patients understand the valuable information that carrier screening can provide.