Genetic Counseling, Graduate School of Health, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
J Genet Couns. 2021 Feb;30(1):55-60. doi: 10.1002/jgc4.1358. Epub 2020 Nov 10.
Current genetic counseling students will graduate into a workforce involving more opportunities, diversity, and uncertainty than any previous generation. Preparing the future genetic counseling workforce is a dynamic challenge, both for the profession and for educators. The dominance of the medical model in the state funded Australian healthcare system creates a power imbalance between doctors and other health professionals. As a result, professional regulation to protect the public from harm in line with the United States, the UK, and Canada only became mandatory in 2019. Professional regulation has the additional benefit of enhancing professional standing and autonomy, enabling genetic counselors to help shape the future of genetic health care in Australia and New Zealand. Within this rapidly evolving environment, we are establishing a new Masters' program and building a discipline of genetic counseling, working alongside other allied health professionals. Our program involves synchronous and asynchronous learning, greater accessibility, flexibility and, as we have learned in 2020, reduction in disruption during a global pandemic. In this program, we foreground the inherent knowledge, skills, and values of genetic counseling, shifting the focus from provision of genetic and genomic tests, to educating competent, person-centered, research enabled and culturally safe genetic counselors. As educators, we have a responsibility to prepare students to embrace the uncertainties, challenges, and potential of the genomic era, to seize the many possibilities that lie ahead, and to expand their thinking and vision. We ask our students to be courageous, to step into a deep exploration of their own identity, beliefs, understanding, and experiences of oppression, power, and privilege. We are pushing boundaries, and challenging ourselves and our students to remain always open to possibilities. Equipping students with open eyes and listening ears may be the single most important thing we can do to prepare the genetic counseling workforce of the future to provide the best possible care.
当前，遗传咨询专业的学生即将步入职场，他们所面临的机遇、多样性和不确定性比以往任何一代人都要多。无论是对专业人士还是教育工作者来说，培养未来的遗传咨询专业人员都是一项极具挑战性的动态任务。在澳大利亚政府资助的医疗体系中，医疗模式占据主导地位，这导致医生和其他健康专业人员之间权力失衡。因此，专业监管以保护公众免受伤害，使其与美国、英国和加拿大保持一致，直到 2019 年才成为强制性要求。专业监管还有助于提升专业地位和自主权，使遗传咨询师能够帮助塑造澳大利亚和新西兰的遗传医疗保健的未来。在这个快速发展的环境中，我们正在建立一个新的硕士课程，并与其他联合健康专业人员一起建立遗传咨询学科。我们的课程涉及同步和异步学习，提高了可及性、灵活性，并且正如我们在 2020 年所了解到的，在全球大流行期间减少了中断。在这个课程中，我们强调遗传咨询的固有知识、技能和价值观，将重点从提供遗传和基因组测试转移到培养有能力、以患者为中心、能够进行研究且具有文化安全性的遗传咨询师。作为教育工作者，我们有责任让学生为迎接基因组时代的不确定性、挑战和潜力做好准备，抓住摆在他们面前的诸多可能性，并拓展他们的思维和视野。我们要求学生要有勇气，深入探索自己的身份、信仰、理解以及对压迫、权力和特权的体验。我们正在突破界限，挑战自己和学生，让他们始终对各种可能性保持开放的态度。让学生拥有开放的眼睛和倾听的耳朵，也许是我们为培养未来的遗传咨询专业人员，使其能够提供最佳护理而能做的最重要的事情。
