Genetics nursing is a nursing specialty that focuses on providing genetic healthcare to patients. The integration of genetics into nursing began in the 1980s and has been a slow but important process in improving the quality of healthcare for patients receiving genetic and genomic based care from nurses. Modeling the United Kingdom, the United States critically established a set of essential competencies as a set of guidelines for registered nurses. Through the process of consensus the essential competencies were created by the Steering Committee, and provided the minimalist competency and scope of practice for registered nurses delivering genetic healthcare to patients.