The evolution of genetic counseling graduate education in New York City during the COVID‐19 pandemic: In the eye of the storm

Abstract

The COVID‐19 pandemic has ravaged the globe in the past year, demanding shifts in all aspects of life including health profession education. The New York City area was the first major United States epicenter and is home to four genetic counseling graduate programs. We set out to explore the multifaceted programmatic changes required from the four institutions in an early pandemic epicenter, providing the longest time horizon available for assessing the implications of this restructuring on graduate education in the profession. Using practitioner‐based enquiry, our iterative reflections identified three phases of COVID‐19 response within our programs from March through December 2020. The spring months were marked by significant upheaval and reactivity, with a focus on stabilizing our programs in an unstable environment that included a significant medical response required in our area. By summer, we were reinvesting time and energy into our programs and prioritizing best practices in online learning. Relative predictability returned in the fall with noticeable improvements in flexibility and proactive problem‐solving within our new environment. We have begun to identify changes in both curricula and operations that are likely to become more permanent. Telehealth fieldwork, remote supervision, simulated cases with standardized clients, and virtual recruitment and admission events are some key examples. We explored early outcome measures, such as enrollment, retention, course evaluations, and student academic and fieldwork progress, all indicating little change from prior to the pandemic to date. Overall, we found our programs, and genetic counseling graduate education more broadly, to be much more resilient and flexible than we would ever have realized. The COVID‐19 pandemic has awakened in us a desire to move ahead with reduced barriers to educational innovation.

A qualitative focus group analysis: Increasing fieldwork capacity in genetic counseling training programs

“…are not yet licensed. (Bergner et al, 2021;Stallman et al, 2021). Several of the focus groups in this study discussed that there are logistical considerations and concerns that may be barriers to adequate remote supervision.…”

“…Berninger et al. (2021) compiled a literature review of proposed solutions from allied health profession research to ascertain novel techniques to increase GC fieldwork capacity. The literature review focused on techniques in the domains of systems infrastructure, rotation structure/models, skill building, novel techniques, and the supervisory relationship.…”

“…While several hypothetical ways to build fieldwork capacity in genetic counseling programs have been postulated in the Berninger et al. (2021) literature review, it is still being determined which strategies these programs are currently using and their views on the effectiveness of differing strategies. This study aims to ascertain key stakeholder perspectives regarding which of the proposed methods increase fieldwork capacity from Berninger et al.…”

Experiences of genetic counseling students with disabilities and chronic illnesses: A qualitative study

“…During the COVID-19 pandemic, programs made adjustments, such as providing remote coursework options, and saw value in this flexibility (Bergner et al, 2021). Such efforts should continue, and additional steps should be taken to increase accessibility for all types of learners.…”

Research on Performance Evaluation of Urban Furniture Function Design Based on Internet of Things Digitization

“…The concept of urban furniture began to flow into China, and has different development processes in many western countries. Facing the development process of China's modernization, how to optimize and improve urban furniture design under the background of Internet of things digitization is the main problem we face [17].…”