This skills based course is designed to give midwives and other health professionals working in a prenatal testing setting tools to help them to enable patients to access appropriate onwards referral. These include obtaining a family history, identify high risk family histories, approaches to genetic testing, consent taking and counselling skills associated with providing information and results.

The course will provide the background scientific knowledge needed to understand the theory behind the application of genetics in a prenatal setting. The scientific content will be complemented with case based examples and practical exercises to connect the scientific theory to the application in your day to day practice.

Participants will be equipped with the basics of prenatal genetic counselling and managing complex scenarios as well as an update on new technologies. They will also gain skills in taking a family history and assessing when a referral on to clinical genetics is indicated.

All attendees will receive a certificate of attendance upon completion of the course. CPD accredited by Royal College of Midwives.

Format

6 half days on Zoom 17th October-29th November 2022

Agenda

Day 1:

• Recognise basic inheritance patterns
• Identify relevant family history and draw a family tree

Day 2:

• Demonstrate the knowledge and communication skills to obtain informed consent for genetic testing in a prenatal setting

Day 3:

• Compare types of genetic tests and recognise the situations that they might be used in

Day 4:

• Discuss tools and procedures used to diagnose genetic conditions during or following pregnancy
• Compare and contrast the role of different healthcare professionals in the prenatal setting

Day 5:

• Demonstrate the use of knowledge about genetic testing gained to discuss a patient’s pathway involving genetic testing in pregnancy

Day 6:

• Recognise the emotions that a patient undergoing genetic testing in a prenatal setting may experience and when further support might be needed
• Recall how to refer to clinical genetics services and what information is useful to include in the referral

More information is available on the Guy’s and St Thomas’ website and don’t forget to book you place on Eventbrite.