Happy Medical Genetics Awareness Week!  The goal of this week is to raise awareness of the invaluable contributions that medical genetics healthcare professionals make in the diagnosis, management and prevention of genetic diseases!  Each day we will feature an amazing PA who works in the field of medical genetics!

Day 4/4: Meet Candace Muss, PA-C.  Candace is a genetics PA at Nemours Dupont Pediatrics Hospital for Children.

Why genetics?

Genetics has always drawn my interest.  It is a field that is always evolving in testing technology and our understanding of genetic interactions and consequences.  This forces one to continue to learn new information, and I feel this is an exciting challenge.

What does your typical day entail?

No two days are the same.  I work in a general genetics pediatric clinic as well as part of the research team in the skeletal dysplasia clinic.  I have clinic visits, inpatient consults, and research families that are spaced out throughout the week.  I have the support of a number of medical geneticists for whom I can turn for questions and our team reviews all patients seen by our department as a group on a weekly basis.  However, on a day to day, I work solo in both clinic and during research appointments.  Inpatient consultations require varying degrees of teamwork.  My days are typically full of the same things that take up a GC and geneticist’s time: clinic appointments, patient calls, provider calls, and paperwork.

What is your favorite part of being a genetics PA?

Honestly, my favorite thing about being a PA in genetics is the families.  In genetics, I get the luxury of spending time getting to know families and seeing them grow over the years.  While the mystery of finding a genetic diagnosis is always exciting, it is truly the families that keep me going through the rough days.