This fall, the U Medical School will welcome its first class of students getting a masters degree in genetic counseling.
Though it might sound benign, genetic counseling involves dealing with highly sensitive information that could drastically affect parents' and a newborn's life.
Genetic counseling is defined by www.MedlinePlus.gov as guidance provided by a medical professional to individuals with an increased risk of having offspring with a specific genetic disorder.
"There's a good genetic center here, so it was natural to train genetic counselors here," said Bonnie Baty, director of the new genetic counseling program.
The program will combine the biology and chemistry involved in running a genetic test with clinical rotations, in which students will work closely with a genetic counselor or other health professional.
Rotations are completed in a variety of departments, including laboratory, pediatric and OBGYN rotations.
The program has already accepted six applicants to complete the genetic counseling program in about 21 months. Many of the students accepted to the program have science degrees, but one of the students is a psychology major.
Psychology is a big part of the genetic counseling program because counselors have to be able to deal with the emotional aspects of the job.
Baty described a possible scenario of telling a mother that her unborn child has a serious genetic disorder.
The mother may experience a variety of emotions, ranging from grief and loss to a sense of crisis. Counselors must know how to deal with these emotions. To handle this half of the job, students take counseling classes from the psychology department.
Many of the professors who plan to teach in the new program are doctors or genetic counselors. Baty has already started planning her students' first assignment: a task that focuses on the listening aspect of genetic counseling.
As a part of this first assignment, students will be asked to interview a patient in the hospital about why they are there.
ccallister@chronicle.utah.edu
