Abstract
The demand for qualified individuals to provide genetic services is rapidly increasing, creating an explosion of jobs within the field of genetic counseling. Training additional genetic counselors would help address the emergent demands for genetic services, but the availability of clinical supervision to train students is a rate-limiting factor. This study aimed to evaluate experiences and the perspectives of patient-facing genetic counselors on the clinical training of genetic counseling students. Four hundred fifteen patient-facing genetic counselors belonging to either the NSGC or ABGC completed an anonymous online survey. Approximately half of participants provided clinical supervision in 2017 and these participants represented 98% of accredited programs in the United States in Canada. The demographics were consistent with the 2016 NSGC Professional Status Survey. The majority of participants (94.3%) perceived the training of additional students as either extremely important or very important. Approximately 55% of participants indicated that they could train additional students per year, with 34.1% of those participants reporting the ability to train an additional 3-5 students yearly. Participants that reported that there was no genetic counseling program within 60 miles of their clinic were more likely to report that they could train more students. Workload, patient volume, number of additional professional responsibilities, age, and NSGC region were not found to be associated with participants’ capacity to train more students. Inclusion of telemedicine cases and expansion of internship opportunities outside direct patient care were ranked as the most effective ways to train additional students. These findings illustrate that patient-facing genetic counselors not only endorse the training of additional genetic counseling students, but also have the ability to provide additional clinical supervision. The utilization of clinical sites located further from existing training programs, potentially using telemedicine or travel stipends, as well as the incorporation of internship experiences in industry, research, and laboratories may allow more students to be trained.