Establishing a mentorship program for prospective genetic counseling graduate students: Two cycles of program experience

Mentorship has been a long‐standing and important piece of healthcare training, but few formal, structured mentorship programs exist in the genetic counseling field. Our report describes the creation and evaluation of the Genetic Counseling Assistant Mentorship Program (GCAMP) after two cycles of the program. Genetic counseling assistant (GCA) mentees were paired with genetic counselor mentors for support and advice primarily surrounding graduate school applications and professional development. Pairs were encouraged to meet at regular intervals, but the specific meeting patterns were determined by the pair based on the needs of the mentee. The GCAMP also involved electronic and interactive resources for mentees, which were continually developed. Many of the electronic resources were created and maintained by past and current GCAs, such as a list of local shadowing and advocacy opportunities and a list of factors to consider when evaluating graduate programs. Interactive resources included workshops, mock graduate school interviews, reviews of graduate school application materials, and social events. Mentors were also provided with resources about mentorship. Surveys were conducted to evaluate the program. Overall satisfaction with the program and the mentoring relationship was high among both mentees and mentors. In aggregate, results revealed that mentees felt strongly supported by the mentorship program and were highly satisfied with their mentorship experience. Results also showed that mentors enjoyed a high level of fulfillment and professional development themselves by participating in the program.

demonstrates that mentorship guidance for students seeking a medical career increased their interest in the career path, answered questions about their career, and enhanced their application (Chang et al., 2016).While many genetic counseling training programs anecdotally utilize mentorship for active students, there are limited formal mentorship opportunities for prospective genetic counseling students.Some institutions employing genetic counseling assistants (GCAs), who are often prospective genetic counseling students, have implemented structured mentorship, including GeneDx and Geisinger Genomic Medicine Institute (Geisinger, 2021;Mukri & DeWard, 2019).In addition, several groups, such as the Prospective Genetic Counselor Guidance Program and the Minority Genetic Professionals Network (MGPN) have also started offering prospective student mentorship outside of the workplace (Mann, 2020;"Prospective Genetic Counselor Guidance Program", 2021).In 2011, the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (UTSW) cancer genetics department created a GCA position to support genetic counselors.The GCA role at UTSW has previously been described (Pirzadeh-Miller et al., 2017).In response to an expanding GCA program, the UTSW cancer genetics department created the Genetic Counseling Assistant Mentorship Program (GCAMP) in July 2019.
Feedback from outgoing GCAs highlighted a desire for an advisor that was not their formal supervisor that they could go to for professional issues and graduate school preparation.In addition, from an institutional standpoint, there were foreseen benefits in having a mentorship program, including attracting quality GCA candidates and increasing GCA satisfaction.This report describes the creation, coordination, and evaluation of the first two cycles of the program.

| Program structure
Within the GCAMP, each GCA was matched with a genetic counselor to serve as their mentor for a one-year cycle.The role of the mentor was to provide supportive and constructive advice for GCAs pertaining to graduate school applications, professional development, and life outside of work.The mentor was not responsible for managing tasks related to employment and performance.These tasks were still handled by the GCA supervisor.A genetic counselor was appointed to organize and oversee the program as the coordinator.
The coordinator was responsible for assigning mentor/mentee pairs, maintaining resources, managing program logistics, and supporting mentors and mentees throughout the cycle.Each mentor/mentee pair was responsible for establishing their meeting schedule.The frequency and length of meetings varied based on the pair's preference.Meetings were allowed to occur during work hours, pending the schedule of participants.There was no extra cost of the program beyond employee time spent.Genetic counselors were able to apply their mentorship experience to a professional development ladder.
To assign the mentor/mentee pairings, the coordinator considered the personality and work style of the participants and obtained input from colleagues outside of the mentorship program.
During cycle one, personality and work style were gleaned from interactions with participants, but during cycle two this information was collected using a questionnaire.Six mentors and six mentees participated in cycle one.All were employees of the UTSW cancer genetics department as either a genetic counselor or GCA.Eight mentors and mentees participated in cycle two.All the participants were again employees of the UTSW cancer genetics department, except for two mentees who were prospective students employed as GCAs by other genetics departments in the area.

| Resources
The GCAMP participants had access to several electronic and interactive resources.Electronic resources refer to documents available to participants in an institutional shared drive, which were created in collaboration with previous GCAs and maintained by current mentees.

What is known about this topic
Mentorship is becoming increasingly important within the genetic counseling field as the number of prospective genetic counseling students continues to increase.While mentorship has been a long-standing and beneficial part of healthcare training, few studies have examined mentorship within the field of genetic counseling.

What this paper adds to this topic
This report details the creation and coordination of a prospective genetic counseling student mentorship program and explores program evaluations and participant perspectives.It is one of the first reports to examine mentorship within the genetic counseling field and the first to describe mentorship within a genetic counseling workplace.
the application process, reviews of the personal statement and CV, a stress management workshop and social events that included the mentors.The stress management workshop and social events were added after cycle one in response to feedback from the participants.

| Program evaluation
To help evaluate the GCAMP and to continue to enhance the program, we developed two versions of a REDCap survey, one for mentors and one for mentees.Both the versions consisted of seven sections: satisfaction, comfort, experience, resources, involvement, program logistics, and overall experience.Copies of the surveys are available in Appendix S2.The GCAMP participants were invited to complete the survey anonymously via an email link.In cycle one, the survey was sent to participants after match day, which may have biased the mentees' outlooks of the GCAMP.In cycle two, the survey was intentionally sent at the conclusion of genetic counseling graduate program interviews, but before match day.All the participants completed the survey.Some results of the survey are highlighted in Tables 1 and 2. The remaining results are described in Appendix S3.
In general, the GCAMP participants reported positive outcomes following their time with the program.Open-ended comments provided by both the mentees and mentors provide powerful insight into the value of the program (Table 1).Many mentees described a strong appreciation of the overall support they received from their mentor and not going through the application process alone.They also referred to the benefit and security of having a point-person on the team to turn to who was distinct from their supervisor or the program leadership.Several mentors described gratification and reward from their mentorship experience, including reflecting on and improving their mentorship skills, "giving back" to the field of genetic counseling and building a new professional relationship.Some comments referred to the mentoring experience as a unique opportunity to provide insight into one's practice outside of mentoring, including reflecting on their own counseling and supervision skills.
The GCAMP participants reported varying levels of comfort depending on the topic of discussion (table 2 in Appendix S3).
Participants were comfortable talking to their partner about the graduate school application process and the majority were comfortable talking about work.However, fewer participants were comfortable talking about their life outside of work with their partners.These responses showed an overall trend that while the majority of participants were comfortable discussing graduate school applications, work related topics, and life outside of work, the level of comfort decreased as the conversation moved further away from graduate school applications.One exception to this trend was that cycle one mentors were least comfortable talking to their mentees about work-related topics beyond the graduate school application process.A theme from the open-ended responses was that workand life-related topics did not come up as much during mentorship conversations (Table 1).Several mentees commented on the value of having someone besides their supervisor or a leadership member to approach with questions or concerns, including one response that pointed out a clear sense of confidentiality that led to more comfort when discussing work-related topics.
While all the mentors agreed they felt prepared to mentor, there was an increase in mentors who strongly agreed they were prepared to mentor in cycle two compared with cycle one (table 3 in Appendix S3).More experience as a mentor may have led to this increase in feelings of preparedness, since the majority of mentors who participated in cycle two also participated in cycle one.
Interestingly, in an NSGC member webinar, it was suggested that genetic counselors naturally make good mentors since mentoring skills include self-reflection, empathy, creative and critical thinking, communication, and an interest in helping others (Austin & Byrne, 2019).
In addition, several studies support the idea that genetic counselors have a foundation of skills that can encourage successful mentoring relationships (Cho et al., 2011;Straus et al., 2013).However, the GCAMP survey responses showed that some mentors may still need more experience or support before feeling fully prepared to mentor.At the start of each GCAMP cycle, mentors were provided with several documents and resources reviewing the basics of mentoring.
Over the course of two cycles, only one of the GCAMP participants, a mentor, was not satisfied with the amount of involvement they had (table 7 in Appendix S3).While levels of satisfaction were generally high, there were inconsistencies in the amount of involvement expected by mentees versus mentors.Due to changes in the outcomes survey, only participants from cycle two of the GCAMP were asked which tasks they expected involvement with versus which tasks they received involvement with (Table 2).Mentees were more likely to underestimate the amount of involvement their mentors would have, and mentors were more likely to overestimate the amount of involvement they would have.The only tasks with which mentees and mentors had consistent expectations were reviewing the CV and personal statement.Furthermore, these were the only two tasks in which all the participants of the GCAMP expected involvement with and received/provided guidance on.The variation in expectations demonstrates the mentors' ability and willingness to tailor mentorship to the individual mentees' needs, which is a major strength of the program.
Preferences for timing of the mentee-mentor match process varied among mentees and mentors, with some preferring the match be made before the mentee started the GCA position, and some preferring the match be made upon the first day or a few weeks after starting the GCA position (table 8 in Appendix S3).Many factors were balanced when determining timing of the match process, such as getting to know personalities of participants and accounting for new hire onboarding and departmental scheduling.Opinions on being remote disrupted the ability to get to know one another.In addition, one participant indicated that their virtual mentoring relationship did not feel as strong.However, several other participants found that being part of the GCAMP during this virtual era was helpful in showing them they can still be an effective mentor even when remote and that the resources of the GCAMP still helped them to get to know other participants.Several studies have examined the impact of virtual mentorship and found similar benefits to that of in-person mentoring, such as having increased flexibility for meetings, being able to keep records of interactions, and providing a more comfortable environment for the mentee (Cantrell et al., 2010;Ensher et al., 2003;Owen, 2015).An additional benefit of virtual mentorship is it may help overcome a barrier for prospective

Theme Mentee Mentor
Gratification "This experience was so helpful in providing support and also teaching me how to be mentored well -both things I'll take into grad school!" (Cycle One) "Great way to get involved with the GCAs and to give back to the future GC community."(Cycle One) "I learned so much about the field of genetic counseling through my mentor.
Select themes from open-ended responses.ifthereis a GCA who does not wish to have a mentor involved, then they should not be forced to have one.Most likely, if they do not wish to have a mentor then they will not get anything out of the program.Some people may want to go through this process on their own, especially if they have previously applied before."(CycleOne)"A mentor also acts to support the mentee not just in preparing for a future in the GC field, but also in their role as a GCA, and identifies opportunities for GCA professional development that could contribute to program goals.It is an essential part of GCA success in their GCA role and beyond."(CycleOne)"Ithink it should be required because the program is what you make of it.I do not think there are any negatives on having a mentor that is a GC when you are a GCA.If you do not need help applying to grad school, you can utilize them for other things and just have one person to reach out to." (Cycle Two)"If a mentee does not find that kind of relationship helpful it will be difficult to force the relationship.I believe it should be the GCA's choice if they would like to be part of the program."(Cycle One) GCAMP consisted of in-person mentoring up until the COVID-19 pandemic started during graduate school interviews.At that time, mentorship transitioned to be virtual.Several participants felt that Through my conversations with them, I was able to narrow down some of my career goals and better define what makes me so excited about the field."(Cycle One) "I really felt that I was able to help my mentee, that my advice was heard and applied as appropriate to them, that I was able to direct them to better sources if necessary, and felt great reward in seeing them grow as an assistant and future counselor."(Cycle One) "The program is a great source of support and encouragement for me throughout my application process."(Cycle Two) "It has been nice to help someone achieve their goal of genetic counseling graduate school.Sharing my thoughts and experiences and seeing how that can help with the mentee's perspective on things is fulfilling.And also learning from the mentee and supporting [them] in how [they] wants to do things (which may not always be how I would have done them) has been a good exercise."(Cycle Two) "The mentorship program left me feeling very prepared for the application process, especially during the interviews."(Cycle Two)