COVID Rotations
Since the start of our time in the program, we looked forward to the summer between our first and second year whenwe would get to experience our first clinical rotation. Like most others during the pandemic, our summer did not go as we initially anticipated. Rather than spending seven weeks working and gaining experience in one clinic, we each had a unique multidisciplinary rotation experience.
Second year student Amy Knight expressed that “our program did an incredible job of reaching out and organizing multiple rotation sites for us that ended up giving us a wider breadth of experience than we would have had otherwise.” Our summer schedules were filled with meeting with patients over phone and videocalls, doing role plays with supervisors from different institutions, completing assignments that prompted us to dig through guidelines and primary literature, and working on various projects. We worked across disciplines in prenatal, cancer, pediatrics, adult, and laboratory genetic counseling at different sites. Second year student Missy Gilbert described her two-week laboratory experience working with genetic counselors at GeneDx. She enjoyed learning more about variant interpretation and writing reports. Missy also expressed that “this experience was very unique in that I was able to get to know other genetic counseling students at Case Western.” She noted that working on skills related laboratory genetic counseling and networking with students at other institutions was particularly beneficial and informative for her.
Having multiple supervisors at different sites throughout the summer posed both benefits and challenges.Because we rotated at multiple sites, we were able to meet so many more genetic counselors throughout the state than we would have if we were at a single site. Because of this, we were able to see various counseling styles and hear different perspectives that can be useful in shaping our own styles. Amy Knight described the differences in expectations and counseling style between sites. She mentioned that “there were times when trying to apply feedback from one site to the next fell flat.” Amy went on to further explain that this experience highlighted the importance of contracting at rotation states about expectations and styles.
In addition to gaining exposure across specialties, this summer was an opportunity to dive deeper into our specific interests in genetic counseling. We each were able to team up with a genetic counselor to work on a rotation project that fit our interests. Being interested in metabolic genetic counseling, I received the opportunity to work with Erin Huggins, MS, CGC at Duke University where I learned more about newborn screening, gave a presentation on congenital disorders of glycosylation to some members of the genetic counseling team, and received the opportunity to help with the Virtual Pediatric Pompe Meeting. Others in my cohort worked on projects related to prenatal genetics, neurogenetics, cardiovascular genetics, and the Undiagnosed Disease Network.
Many of my classmates expressed that the multidisciplinary summer rotation was helpful in transitioning into clinical roles. Amy Knight noted that she “appreciated telehealth rotation experiences as a segue between the classroom and the clinic. It proved to be a safe way to break into roles as counselors with the added bonus of being in the comfort of our own homes.” My classmates and I feel grateful for both the UNCG program and genetic counselors across our sites that accepted students for a summer experience. As genetic counselors were working to sort out changes and challenges in technology, so many people were willing and able to help us learn and grow as genetic counselors.
