A formal licensure process for genetic counselors was the focus of a bill discussed by the Health and Human Services Committee Jan 19.<\/p>\n
Under LB831, introduced by Omaha Senator Gwen Howard, genetic counselors who have satisfied the training and certification requirements of the American Board of Genetic Counseling could apply for licensure. Howard said the need for licensure is important due to the growing prevalence of the practice.<\/p>\n
\u201cGenetic counselors work with many general practitioners today,\u201d Howard said.<\/p>\n
Bronson Riley, representing the Southeast Nebraska Cancer Center, testified that licensure would improve the quality of care available to patients.<\/p>\n
\u201cCurrently any individual can hold himself or herself as a genetic counselor,\u201d he said. \u201cWith licensure, individuals can feel assured the person providing genetic counseling is properly educated.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sen. Bob Krist asked whether a genetic counselor would advise a woman to terminate a pregnancy based on information provided during a consultation.<\/p>\n
Beth Conover, an Omaha genetic counselor, explained that her job is to present all options and support the patient.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy job is to help them identify the implications for their family,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019d never tell them what to do, but would help them find resources.\u201d<\/p>\n
No one testified in opposition to the bill and the committee took no immediate action.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A formal licensure process for genetic counselors was the focus of a bill discussed by the Health and Human Services<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12],"tags":[79],"class_list":["post-5733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health-and-human-services","tag-sen-bob-krist"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5733"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5733\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5758,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5733\/revisions\/5758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}