-: Genetics is a rapidly developing field,
so I think part of the reason I chose the field,
but also one of the challenges,
is that it involves a lot of continuing education.
You have to stay up on top of,
at least in your own subspecialty,
the research that's going on,
because patients will also come to you with papers
and the New York Times or what they found on the internet,
and ask you about it,
because genetics is kind of a hot topic,
so we have to not only be on top of
the scientific research in the field,
and what the experts are saying,
but we also have to keep in mind
what the lay public is saying about genetics,
and sort of how society is feeling about various topics,
so that if we suggest a gene therapy,
for example, we have to know whether or not
gene therapies were just written about really poorly
in a major news publication,
or patients will know about celebrities
who have come out talking about genetic conditions
and we need to be familiar with the stories,
so that we can relate to our patients.
So I think there's a lot of behind the scenes learning
that we do, and continuing education as well,
going to conferences, stuff like that.
And then also, I think, counseling is a really hard skill.
Being a good counselor and being able to listen
and communicate effectively to patients,
and we do a lot of training in that in school.
It's a very hands-on program, certainly,
and we get a lot of supervision and feedback on that.
But once you're in the job,
you're often one-on-one with the patient,
so you're not getting that supervision and feedback,
so I think it takes a lot of personal initiative
to keep working on your counseling skills,
and working on your patient facing responsibilities.