In considering level of education and how that qualifies someone to be a
professional I would like to make two points: North Dakota requires a BSN to
sit for RN boards.  The rationale is that if nurses are to be considered
health care professionals they should have a professional degree.  I am not
sure if this is the same reasoning in college and university nursing
programs outside of ND. Can one tell the difference in a diploma vs bachelor
prepared RN?
First I was a breastfeeding mother, then a LLLL, next an IBCLC and then went
to college.  Even though I had been a LLLL for 10 years when I took the
board the new LC credentials did not increase my status with the medical
community or with mothers.  At that time LCs were very new (I sat the board
in 1986) but even now I believe that it is Linda the nurse calling from
Custer Health that usually opens HCPs ears and minds, not Linda the IBCLC
calling from her home based practice.  Does this mean I think one needs to
be a degreed professional to be an IBCLC?  Not in ability to help mothers
and babies, but to be able to intervene on their behalf, in our community,
probably. I still believe the best training I had was nursing 5 children (29
to 18 years old) with the myriad differences they brought; not necessarily
because I personally nursed but because I spent time learning what needed to
be learned to be able to nurse them - none of them crawled up after birth,
latched and nursed happily ever after.

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