Have you had the experience of the "Advice Nurses" (nurses that respond to telephone calls from the community/medical insurance members)  in your community provide information that is not up-to-date...or they provide instructions to supplement when clearly there is a serious problem that should lead to an appointment to an LC, an MD or even a visit to the ER?  This has happened to me all too often lately!

Recently I was asked to provide a training to Advice Nurses from a neighboring county.  It was a real challenge - especially as I've never worked in that position.    I requested the Protocols they were working under as a point of reference.  This provided me a clarification of what they were doing and why, and perhaps what they might want to learn.

I agreed to take this on, but explained that in 2 hours I could not possibly provide a good background in breastfeeding AND address the issues they probably were facing.  Surprisingly, funding was found to provide on-line BFJO staff training for all of them!  My 2-hour presentation included information about communication skills and milk production – then I offered a “menu” and those present chose the next topics to cover.  It went well, based on the evaluations I distribute which are only 5 open-ended questions and only one  1 – 5 rating, as I find those ratings are usually not very helpful in my learning what they found useful, what they still had questions about and how they would improve the session.   

 I've been asked to return (Thanks, Linda Smith, for your teaching that it's OK to "leave them wanting more" instead of trying to stuff much more than people can manage in the time allotted.)

So I thought I'd encourage those interested in improving your community's breastfeeding support network to see if there is a way to provide information/education to your "Advice Nurses"...

 Jeanette Panchula, BA-SW, RN, PHN, IBCLC

Vacaville, CA  

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