This morning, the first day of February, in my AP Bio class we watched a live presentation by a Genetic Counselor, Brooke Nightingale. This topic may sound familiar, and this is because is connected to last week's blog post (if you haven't already, CHECK IT OUT!).
Brooke is an ex-student of NDB High School and she was in AP Biology too. After High School, she had no idea of what she wanted to do in her future, but she had always been interested in Biology. Brooke went to Cal Poly where she majored in Biology, and then she graduated from Ohio State College, where she found out about Genetic Counseling. Now Brooke is working at Stanford Hospital and is constantly helping people and families to find out whether or not they have a genetic disease and what to do if the answer is positive.
Brooke gave a very deep explanation of what Genetic Counselors do, and she did this by telling us what she normally does in a week. Brooke has "Clinics" three times per week, during which she does prep for clinic and post clinic work. Then she supervises genetic counseling students and teaches in the GC program.
Brooke said that Genetic Counseling is a growing field; in fact, the employment of genetic counselors is projected to grow 26 percent from 2020 to 2030, much faster than the average for all occupations. Genetic Counseling is an important job, and as Brooke said, being a Genetic Counselor means being the "Sherlock Holmes of medicine", since they usually work with people that don't have a diagnosis yet. This job is also very versatile, as Genetic Counselors can work in different settings, such as hospitals, laboratories, non-profits, universities, and the government.
Finally, Brooke discussed with us three of the patients she took care of. Listening to her was very interesting and made me realize how important is to study genetics and to understand what could happen if there is an abnormal gene sequence or an error. I can't wait to know more about specific syndromes or diseases!
Work Cited
“Genetic Counselors : Occupational Outlook Handbook.” U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 8 Sept. 2021, https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/genetic-counselors.htm#:~:text=8%25-,Employment%20of%20genetic%20counselors%20is%20projected%20to%20grow%2026%20percent,on%20average%2C%20over%20the%20decade. Accessed 1 February 2022.
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