You are invited to apply for the Summer Genetics Institute program at the National Institute of Nursing Research, National Institutes of Health (NIH) that is designed to provide training in molecular genetics for use in research and clinical practice. The program provides an opportunity for graduate students, faculty and advanced practice nurses to engage in a formal program of study with classroom and laboratory components. The program will draw upon the unique resources available here on the campus of the National Institutes of Health to advance your knowledge of genetics.

The advances in genetics are redesigning the future of health care. As the largest group of professional health care providers in the Nation, nurses number about 2.5 million and are on the front lines of health care delivery in the acute, outpatient, community, and long-term care setting. Having the map of the human genome presents a number of challenges to health care professionals from every sector engaged in health care delivery or services. The ability to identify individuals at risk for heritable diseases has rapidly outdistanced the ability to counsel them about how to use that knowledge; the knowledge needed for treatment based on genetic research, mapping and sequencing of the human genome is under development and not yet in general clinical practice. And lastly, the challenge is to develop research capacity among nurse scientists. Together, these challenges must be addressed to prepare nurses for practice and research in the 21st century.

The Summer Genetics Institute provides an intensive two-month, 12 credit hour graduate research training program in molecular genetics. Participants will have an opportunity to interact with scientists at the NIH and invited experts knowledgeable in the latest application of genetics in research and clinical practice. Elements of the course will also be directed at the implications of genetics for public policy.

I hope that you will consider applying to this exciting program that provides an outstanding research training opportunity. I look forward to meeting with the participants selected for this important program.

Sincerely,
Dr. Patricia A. Grady
Director
National Institute of Nursing Research