Medical Genetics 407-507

Medical Genetics 407/507 - Introduction to Genetic Counselling

An interactive course designed to provide undergraduate students insight into the role of a genetic counsellor through exploration of key topics. This course may also meet the requirements of many Master’s degree training programs in Genetic Counselling that require their applicants to meet with a genetic counsellor.

The class meets once a week for a 2 to 3 hour discussion. Each week, students will be presented a typical genetic counselling case, which they will then write up and present to the entire class the following week. All students will then participate in the discussion of the case. Midterm and/or finals may consist of a presentation on a choice of various ethical issues currently impacting the field orother creative writing endeavours on a topic pertinent to the field. The course is graded based on presentations, written assignments and participation. Open to up to 4 students with permission of the course instructor. Credit may only be obtained in one of MDGEN407 or MDGEN507.

Interested students are asked to see
https://sites.google.com/ualberta.ca/mdgen407/home for more information on how to apply. The course instructor, Sajid Merchant, may also be contacted. As spots for the class are limited, interviews to select students will only be held for those individuals who have looked into the field of genetic counselling and are in the process of obtaining the necessary components to apply to a Genetic Counselling Master’s degree training program. Thus, students are more likely to be selected for an interview if they have or are gaining the necessary requirements to apply to a training program. This may include components such
as: 1) being in their fourth year of studies; 2) have a GPA of 3.0 or greater (over their last two years of school); 3) have taken/are planning to take human genetics and psychology classes and 4) are volunteering (or are in the process of applying to volunteer) with an organization that provides some form of one-on-one crisis counselling. These components are subject to change as entrance requirements of schools evolve.

Information about MDGEN 407/507 can be found by searching the University of Alberta Calendar at https://calendar.ualberta. ca/, reviewing the website
https://sites.google.com/ualberta.ca/mdgen407/home, reviewing the following video about the course (https://vimeo.com/544336854/ 2b8538f831) and by contacting Sajid Merchant at GeneticCounsellingIntro@ualberta.ca