This funding provides four positions each year to qualified applicants. All applicants to the program are considered for these funded positions. The curriculum consists of at least 80 credit hours of didactic course work in the areas of human genetics, genetic counseling, public policy, research methodology, ethics, and health education. The course work is taken on the NIH campus in Bethesda, Maryland, and at the various Johns Hopkins University campuses. In addition to didactic course work, the program requires a minimum of four hundred contact hours of supervised clinical rotations in a variety of settings.
Clinical rotations begin in the second quarter of the program, and are required throughout.
They are scheduled during several half-days each week. These rotations provide a critical opportunity for students to learn directly about genetic conditions and their impact on individuals and their families, as well as about roles of the professional counselor. Most of the preceptors for clinical rotations are board-certified genetic counselors. This type of broad experience is endorsed by the American Board of Genetic Counseling. Students are also expected to develop experience in research methodology, to begin to address many of the research questions now facing genetic counselors.