Testimonials

Since my clinic is very specialized, my onboarding was almost all shadowing with Clair Francomano, MD. Prior to joining the genetics department, I was practicing as an NP in an IU Health Family Medicine clinic for four years. As a bedside RN, I worked in the NICU at Riley Hospital and IU West Emergency West Department. My time shadowing Dr. Francomano was a great chance to work in a supportive environment where you have the opportunity to constantly grow and learn. We have a multidisciplinary team that works together on a daily basis to provide amazing care to our complex patient population. The ability to spend the time needed with my patients to really address their needs has been an eye-opening experience for me and I'm very grateful for that.

I enjoy working with children of all ages and especially love working with children. I decided to take part in the Genetics Training Program at IU School of Medicine so I could gain additional knowledge to help me better care for children with intellectual and developmental differences. My background is in pediatrics, and I did both pediatric ICU nursing and was involved with Camp Riley before pursuing my nurse practitioner degree. The training program provided me with a great genetics foundation and has allowed me to better care for these patients and their families. My favorite experience included rotating through all our specialty genetics clinics and with our inpatient team. This was a great opportunity to gain additional knowledge and see just how far-reaching genetics is. It has been super rewarding to see how resilient children can be and the difference it makes when family is on board with management plans. I would highly recommend this program to any APPs who are interested in being a genetics provider!

I am a board-certified family nurse practitioner. I worked as a nurse at Riley Hospital for almost five years. While working as a nurse, I earned my master's in nursing. I worked in family medicine for several years before starting with medical genetics. The Genetics Education Program is an incredible opportunity for growth to increase my knowledge regarding genetics and genetic testing so that I can ultimately give better care as a genetics provider. My advice to prospective trainees is to remain open minded when starting a new specialty as there is a lot to learn! I enjoyed rotating through the various genetics clinics during my education program. I appreciated getting to meet more of my colleagues and seeing the variety of genetics care provided within our large department.

I have been in health care for 11 years. I worked as a nurse in the pediatric ICU and adult oncology/medical. I worked as an ECMO specialist in the pediatric ICU. I worked as a pediatric nurse practitioner in a primary care clinic, and now I'm here! I have taken care of a wide variety of patients with complex medical conditions, but genetics was an area I was not super familiar with. I like a challenge, and I wanted to learn more. So, I applied with enthusiasm at the prospects of an unfamiliar position, and I haven't looked back. Genetics is always growing and learning, which creates an opportunity for you to grow and learn as well. We're in a supportive, educational work environment that always has opportunities to learn more, and it's fun. I loved being able to follow the variety of subspecialty clinics within genetics. Genetic syndromes are vastly diverse and often require specialized management, and each clinic has their area of expertise, which is patient driven and improves patient outcomes. Each experience showed the strong impact and need for genetics.