-: A lot of the students' backgrounds
are in a sort of Pre-Med like background,
either in Biology or Psychology or Chemistry,
but it doesn't have to be.
It's really open.
One of my classmates has background in religion,
for example, which in our ethics courses come in handy,
her background in knowing that sort of information.
So I think the programs are really open
to people's diverse backgrounds
because of the different way we interact with patients.
So I think just an interest in the field
is more important necessarily than certain coursework,
and because it's a very unique field
and involves sort of unique patient-provider interactions
most of the time,
the program's really for individuals who have had a chance
to see what that looks like,
and see if that's for them.
So they really value students who have found opportunities
to observe genetic counselors practicing
in some sort of environment,
and to see if that feels like something they'd like to do.
So, we have a national society,
The National Society of Genetic Counselors,
and on their website, there's places you can contact,
practicing genetic counselors, and many of them are open
to having students or other individuals
observe sessions with them to see what their day is like.
So, like I said, our National Society of Genetic Counselors
does have what we call special interest groups
for the various subspecialties,
whether or not that's cancer, or pre-natal,
or in-vitro fertilization groups,
and assisted reproductive technologies,
or pediatrics, or neurology,
so I think many people in our field
subscribe to those list serves
and they will publish webinars on hot topics.
For example, in the pre-natal one,
there was one on opioids and pregnancy
because of the opioid epidemic in the country
and that's a topic that maybe people
hadn't discussed in school.
What to say if a pregnant woman wants to know
how that might affect her fetus, for example.
So those professional communities help a lot,
as well as our professional conference,
and doing those sort of educational resources.
The NIH puts out a lot of more mid-level information
that we can use to share with our patients as well.
There's also a website, OMIM, that we use a lot.
So there's a lot of resources we know in the field,
but honestly, I think it's also important for us
to look at whatever Yahoo says, or Google,
just when you type in genetics,
because even if it might not all be accurate information,
it's important for us to know what's out there,
and we often ask, in sessions with patients,
like, what have you read online?
What have your friends been telling you?
Have you seen a friend go through this
and have a bad experience?
Is that why you're feeling nervous about doing this test?
Stuff like that, because they're not always
gonna remember what we say,
but they're definitely gonna remember
what their sister-in-law said.