Date of Graduation
5-2015
Document Type
Thesis (MS)
Program Affiliation
Genetic Counseling
Degree Name
Masters of Science (MS)
Advisor/Committee Chair
Claire N. Singletary, MS, CGC
Committee Member
S. Shahrukh Hashmi, MD, MPH, Ph.D
Committee Member
Rebecca D. Carter, MS, CGC
Committee Member
Jennifer Lemons, MS, CGC
Committee Member
Hector Mendez-Figueroa, MD
Committee Member
Salma Nassef, MS, CGC
Committee Member
Brent W. Peery, DMin, BCC
Abstract
Religion and spirituality are important components of many individuals’ lives, and spiritual needs may present among persons receiving medical care. Spirituality has been demonstrated to be significant in the coping of women experiencing pregnancy complications (Breen et al. 2006; Price et al. 2007). To characterize the manner in which prenatal genetic counselors might address spiritual issues with their patients, we surveyed 283 patients receiving prenatal genetic counseling using the Brief RCope and a series of questions that examined interest in spiritual exploration. Counselors were concurrently surveyed to identify the spiritual language used within the session and the counselor’s perceived importance of religion/spirituality to the patient. Genetic counselors were significantly more likely to identify a patient as using R/S when the patients used spiritual language (p
Keywords
spirituality, prenatal genetic counseling, religion, genetics, spiritual assessment, religious coping