Abstract
Significant life events, or critical incidents, can catalyze lasting personal and professional change. Genetic counselors can find themselves experiencing a similar critical incident as a patient. Indeed, cancer is extremely prevalent, and genetic counselors and their family members are not invincible from its effects. A handful of published personal commentaries describe how a family member’s cancer diagnosis prompted professional growth; however, this topic has not been empirically explored. This study sought to characterize how genetic counselors’ personal lives impact their professional lives, and vice versa. Ten genetic counselors who were practicing as a clinical cancer genetic counselor at the time when a blood relative was diagnosed with cancer participated in semi-structured interviews. Inductive analysis, a qualitative research method, was utilized to discover emergent themes. Each interviewee recognized that they were professionally impacted in at least one way by their personal experience with cancer, such as enhanced understanding of the patient experience and patient connection. The majority of participants relayed at least one way this life event altered patient interactions. Moreover, each participant described an instance in which they experienced countertransference as a result of this life event, though only half of them identified it as such. Additionally, seven out of ten participants have self-disclosed about their family history to at least one patient. When discussing their own perceived cancer risk, only a minority of participants felt that their profession has heightened their fear of developing cancer. This study demonstrates that sometimes personal-professional boundaries are difficult to maintain. Genetic counselors should be cognizant of how a critical incident in their personal lives can impact patient care.