MMI’s Shelly Nielsen has the right tools for her job

Much like a construction worker, Shelly Nielsen uses tools to do her job.

But she doesn’t wear a hardhat or a toolbelt.

Genetic counselor Shelly Nelson works with a patient at the Munroe-Meyer Institute.

As a prenatal and pediatric genetic counselor, she uses pictures of chromosomes, an open ear and sometimes a shoulder to lean on to counsel families before or after a genetic test or diagnosis.

“I tell families what to expect, what they can gain from knowing the results, what’s known about the condition and then connect them with resources,” Nielsen said.

Counseling patients after difficult diagnoses can be stressful, she said, as some are still grieving or feel guilty for passing a disorder on to their children.

Others are relieved to know the answer to the question ‘Why?’

“I often tell people it’s just something that happens and you happen to be the one it happened to,” Nielsen said.

More from MMI This story originally appeared in the Munroe-Meyer Institute’s Link TextSpring 2010 MMInfo newsletter.

Nielsen believes it’s her responsibility to educate families about genetic disorders and varies her style of explanation from technical and complex to laymen’s terms with basic concepts.

It helps that Nielsen was a middle school biology teacher prior to coming to the Munroe-Meyer Institute 10 years ago.

She earned her bachelor’s degree in biology and her master’s in teaching from the University of Virginia and went on to get her master’s in genetic counseling from the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center.

“Genetic counseling is a combination of science and teaching and you’re teaching people who want to learn, so it’s very satisfying,” she said. “I always say you can judge your job
by how you feel on Sunday nights before Monday morning. I look forward to seeing patients every Monday. There are families out there that want to know the truth.”

And knowledge is power.