KATRINA HARRISON - Genetic counsellor
Salary range
Start $45,483 with yearly increases to $63,852 for associate genetic counsellor
Start $65,502 with yearly increases to $69,761 for accredited genetic counsellor
What I studied
Bachelor of Science Human Biology (Curtin University)
Career path
Research Assistant
Associate Genetic Counsellor
Accredited Genetic Counsellor
One lecture which discussed genetic counselling in her second year of university changed Katrina's Port's life.
“I thought, 'that's me'. I knew I did not want to be stuck in a lab, and this seemed like a great way to combine people and the knowledge I gained through my degree.“
Katrina was studying human biology, which covers a wide range of subjects, including physiology, anatomy, embryology, biochemistry, population genetics and molecular biology.
“Unfortunately my careers counsellor was not aware of what you can do with a human biology degree, and told me I could only become a teacher. But really it is a great springboard degree into other areas. From my year alone, people have become chiropractors, physiotherapists and pharmacy representatives.”
Katrina, however, had her heart set on becoming a genetic counsellor.
“But it is trickier in WA than anywhere else in Australia, as there is no postgraduate course in genetic counselling.”
Katrina needed to spend time gaining skills in counselling, spending two years at the Wasley Institute and this qualified her as an associate genetic counsellor. This indicates a theoretical grounding in counselling, but now she is working on the second part of her qualification, looking at a series of individual case studies at the King Edward Memorial Hospital for Women.
Genetic counselling is a challenging profession which requires strong skills in understanding patients' genetic conditions in addition to being able to respond to their individual emotional needs and issues.
“There are lots of people who need our help. Each patient is different, and reacts differently to their situation. You need very much to be a people person.”
An average week for Katrina involves face-to-face appointments with patients, dealing with emergency cases and acting as duty officer one day a week (performing triage for all calls and enquiries). Katrina also attends numerous meetings, works up referrals to geneticists and sits in on their appointments. She is also expected to undertake a research project - hers is on congenital hearing loss.
Western Australia has only ten genetic counsellors for the whole state and in addition to people coming into the clinic in Perth, her team often undertakes outreach trips to centres such as Geraldton, Bunbury, Albany, Port Hedland and Kalgoorlie.
“Because there are so few genetic counsellors in WA, some days can be exhausting, but it is still a brilliant job. There is a great mix of urgency and a steady flow of work through seeing patients in the clinic and in the wards. It is also very multidisciplinary and as I work in a teaching hospital, it is a huge learning environment.”
As well as her busy work, Katrina is also a masters student at Edith Cowan University, looking at cousin marriages in Western Australia.
“This work has never been done before in Western Australia and I am trying to establish a profile of consanguineous couples who present for genetic counselling in WA with some emphasis on outcomes. This concentrates less on genetics and more on population-based data.”
My advice for students
“Be persistent, set goals and go for it. The most important advice I received as an undergraduate was to volunteer your time while you are a student. Be prepared to do anything to help out, offer to do filing, make reagents or even clean-up the lab. You will be amazed at how much you will learn just by being there. Let people see you are keen and enthusiastic. It also gives your prospective employer an idea of who you are and how well you fit into the department. You cease to become an unknown person on a job application. Sometimes it really is who you know, not what you know!”