Projecting the Supply and Demand for Certified Genetic Counselors: a Workforce Study

Genetic counseling careers continue to evolve, yet there remains a lack of information about hiring trends in the genetic counseling profession. In this study, job advertisements in the United States and Canada were analyzed, using the National Society of Genetic Counselors (NSGC) Job Connections and the American Board of Genetic Counseling (ABGC) eBlasts from 2014 to 2016 to appraise job roles, qualifications, settings, specialties, and type. NSGC had 1875 advertised openings from 2014 to 2016, while ABGC had 373 advertised openings. Jobs containing a “counseling” role increased as a percentage from 2014 to 2016 when advertised by NSGC (χ2 = 25.52, p < 0.000001) but decreased each year from 2014 to 2016 as a percentage when advertised through ABGC (χ2 = 14.29, p = 0.0008). In the ABGC job postings, it was noted that 36% of job postings were advertised for other specialties (not solely cancer, pediatric, or prenatal) in 2014, and increased to 67% in 2016 (χ2 = 10.09, p = 0.02). Examining the job specialties posted by ABGC and NSGC, several new or unique roles were found in the job advertisements such as ophthalmology counselor, variant curator, rare diseases information specialist, and clinical policy analyst. Roles for temporary, contract or fellowship positions are possibly becoming more common, along with small upturns in positions that are off‐site or remote. In analyzing the changing workforce, there was a statistically significant decrease identified in jobs advertised by NSGC in the laboratory setting from 28% in 2014 to 17% in 2016 (χ2 = 24.12, p = 0.000024). This information on the evolving career of genetic counseling is valuable for the current workforce and training programs as they adapt with the changing landscape of the profession.

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Genetic counseling job market in the United States and Canada: An analysis of job advertisements 2014–2016

Burns

Swanson

Hoskovec

et al. 2019

“…It is a critical part of training of the next generation of genetic counselors, and it is a required element of GC graduate programs accredited by the Accreditation Council for Genetic Counseling (ACGC, ). Given the high demand for genetic counselors (Hoskovec et al, ), there are increasing numbers of GC training programs, and existing programs are working on increasing the sizes of their classes. However, two of the top six reasons program directors state for not being able to expand their training program are related to a lack of proper supervision (Pan, Yashar, Pothast, & Wicklund, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Supervision in genetic counselor training in North America: A systematic review

Siskind

Atzinger

2019

Genetic counseling has been a profession for over 40 years, and training programs accredited by the Accreditation Council for Genetic Counseling are required to have students supervised in at least 50 patient‐facing cases prior to graduation. However, there is no standardized information or training for supervisors of genetic counseling students. As a first step toward creating formal and standardized supervision training, we undertook a systematic review of the genetic counseling student supervision literature. A formal systematic review was conducted including establishing a research question with inclusion and exclusion criteria, establishing search terms, searching databases, reading/screening abstracts, examining full texts for inclusion, assessing for quality, and finally extracting data with a standardized form to provide the basis of the review. In all, 151 papers were screened, of which 19 and two erratum were found to meet inclusion criteria and pass quality measures. Main themes from these papers were as follows: Training Model, Competencies, Investigation of Techniques, Difficulties in Supervision, and Barriers. In total, 19 papers provided evidence for the way that supervision is currently being performed and suggestions for what needs further investigation to direct supervision training. Recommendations for genetic counseling student supervision include the following: provide a review of training models to supervisors; provide a copy of the supervision competencies to supervisors; use competencies with lowest self‐efficacy to inform future supervision trainings; and find ways to support genetic counselors in becoming student supervisors.

“…A commissioned GC workforce analysis estimated that there will be 3,755 GCs in direct patient care positions in 2025. Projected demands for GCs in direct patient positions ranged from 3,473 (281 surplus) to 4,631 (876 deficit) (Hoskovec et al, ). In the absence of a sufficient number of GCs to meet the growing demand for services, current practitioners need to evaluate how they can increase their efficiency to ensure adequate access.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genetic counselor workflow study: The times are they a‐changin’?

Attard

Carmany

Trepanier

2018

Genetic services have historically been time and labor intensive. Little information is known about the proportion of time genetic counselors (GCs) spend face‐to‐face with patients in comparison to the time spent on patient‐related activities (PRA). We aimed to perform a real‐time workflow study of GCs representing multiple clinics and specialties. We developed an electronic collection tool formatted in 15‐min increments for real‐time documentation of how the GC spent his/her time throughout the workday for one full week, based on a defined task list. Participants were Michigan GCs recruited via email solicitation. Sixteen of an estimated 70 patient‐facing GCs (23%) representing prenatal, cancer, adult, and pediatric genetics took part by completing a demographic survey and the workflow study. The GCs reported spending approximately 20% of their time face‐to‐face with patients, 64% on PRA including case preparation, follow‐up, and administrative tasks, and 16% on tasks unrelated to direct patient care. They saw a mean of 10 patients/week with a mean session length of 47 min. Approximately 3 hr of PRA were performed for the 0.78 hr (47 min) of face‐to‐face time with a patient. The most time‐consuming task in the PRA category was letter writing. Identifying strategies to reduce the amount of time spent on PRA could increase the amount of available time GCs have to spend on providing face‐to‐face services and subsequently, the number of patients seen. Such efforts are critical to help meet the growing demand for genetic counseling services.