Premium
Climbing the Ladder: Experience with Developing a Large Group Genetic Counselor Career Ladder at Children's National Health System
Author(s) -
Kofman Laura,
Seprish Mary Beth,
Summar Marshall
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
journal of genetic counseling
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.867
H-Index - 52
eISSN - 1573-3599
pISSN - 1059-7700
DOI - 10.1007/s10897-016-9967-4
Subject(s) - genetic counseling , medical education , incentive , medicine , family medicine , psychology , nursing , genetics , economics , biology , microeconomics
Children's National Health System (CNHS) is a not‐for‐profit pediatric hospital that employs around twenty genetic counselors in a range of specialties, including clinical pediatric, neurology, fetal medicine, research, and laboratory. CNHS lacked a structured system of advancement for their genetic counselors; therefore, a formal career ladder was proposed by the genetic counselors based on years of experience, responsibility, and job performance. This career ladder utilized monetary, academic, and seniority incentives to encourage advancement and continue employment at CNHS. The creation and ultimate approval of the career ladder required direct input from genetic counselors, Department Chairs, and Human Resource personnel. The establishment of a genetic counselor career ladder at CNHS will hopefully benefit the profession of genetic counselors as a whole and allow other facilities to create and maintain their own career ladder to meet the needs of the growing, competitive, field of genetic counseling.