Abstract
Genetic counselors are specialized health professionals who, by nature of their profession, come into contact with patients who are experiencing, or have experienced, some type of loss. As such, it is important that genetic counselors be well prepared to provide emotional support to patients and families who are grieving. The purpose of this study was to determine beginning genetic counselors’ comfort level with issues of grief and loss in the clinical setting. We set out to find what factors, if any, influenced their comfort level in counseling for these personal issues. We recruited clinical genetic counselors with fewer than 6 years of experience from the National Society of Genetic Counselors (NSGC) listserv for participation in a voluntary, anonymous online survey. The survey contained questions related to educational counseling opportunities, personal and professional experiences with issues of loss, and counselors' comfort level with a wide variety of counseling scenarios. Overall, genetic counselors were comfortable with psychosocial counseling scenarios, but were most uncomfortable with scenarios that involved death and dying. Hands-on training including mock counseling sessions, clinical rotations, and community involvement, in addition to on-the-job experience, were the most helpful factors contributing to counselors' comfort level. Personal experiences and religious beliefs also played a role in how counselors interacted with patients including both positive and negative countertransference. Due to counselors' relative discomfort with more emotionally charged and complex scenarios, in combination with their strong reactions to their own experiences and beliefs, we suggest initiating a formal evaluation of genetic counseling curricula, so that genetic counseling programs can consider how best to incorporate additional training on these topics.