Pilot Study of the Process of Prenatal Genetic Counseling

Completed · Not applicable

Conditions studied: Genetic Counseling

In brief

This study will examine the process of prenatal genetic counseling to determine how various client and counselor factors affect the communication process in a counseling session. The specific aims of the study are to: * Provide information on prenatal genetic counselors' interactions with clients for the basis of a future larger study of the genetic counseling process. * Determine the average length and the range of length of prenatal genetic counselors' interactions with clients when family history information has already been provided. * Document on videotape the communication content and interaction dynamics of prenatal genetic counselors interacting with clients in order to: * Characterize different models of prenatal genetic counseling * Determine the nature of discussions concerning cystic fibrosis carrier testing within the context of prenatal genetic counseling. * Examine the impact of prenatal genetic counselors' characteristics (years of experience, training and background, age, clinical setting, anxiety) on the communication content and interaction dynamics of sessions with clients. * Examine the impact of the presence of a spouse on the communication content and interaction dynamics of prenatal genetic counseling sessions with clients. * Examine the impact of client verbal emotional cues on the communication content and interaction dynamics of prenatal genetic counseling sessions. Counselors will be recruited for this study from among practicing prenatal genetic counselors at regional meetings and a national meeting of the National Society of Genetic Counselors. They will perform prenatal genetic counseling sessions with actors in the roles of client and client's spouse. The sessions will be videotaped, and the counselor and actors will fill out questionnaires regarding the characteristics of the counselor and the session. Counselors may be contacted later to request permission to use segments of their videotaped sessions for creating a video teaching tool for counseling professionals that illustrates different ways to practice the genetic counseling.

Key facts

Study ID

NCT00047905

Run by

National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI)

People needed

30

Starts

2002-10-01

Expected to finish

2003-04-01

Last updated by the study team

2008-03-04

Who can join

Age: any. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: not accepted.

You may qualify if…

• Any master's trained genetic counselors attending the 2002 regional meetings and/or a national meeting of the National Society of Genetic Counselors who currently provide prenatal genetic counseling services as part of their professional practices will be included in the study. In addition, any prenatal genetic counselors referred by these individuals, but who did not attend these meetings, will also be eligible to participate.

You may not qualify if…

• Genetic counselors who do not practice prenatal counseling training programs will be excluded In addition, master's level students currently in genetic counseling training programs will be excluded from the study because differences in their stages of training and practice development would introduce additional variability into the data set.

Where it is running

• National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) — Bethesda, Maryland, United States

Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov

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