I share the concerns expressed by Donna and Jan and others that responded to this thread. I am a non-RN IBCLC employed by a hospital. I have been there in this capacity for almost 23 years. 


I have been told by many nurses that they like my style over the other RN LCs because of how I deal with the mother and baby. I credit my LLL Leader background for that. Anyone who puts their mind to it can learn the book stuff - and many who are LCs have done just that. I have observed with my colleagues and with nurses on the floor that RNs are trained to be more clinical and treat/fix the problem - there are two schools of nursing in my area that practice their clinical skills on mannequins and spend little time working with actual people - where LLL Leaders focus on the people and the questions behind the obvious issue. LLL Leaders are trained to work over the phone as well as in person at Group meetings. They learn to listen for nuances in speech, to ask open- ended questions, and to learn form the mother. LLL has a whole department on communication skills with multiple sessions for Leaders to take. The Leader application period devotes a lot of time to exploring one's personal feelings about her nursing experience as well as how to use those feelings (or set them aside) when helping another mother. 


I am troubled by the tendency to discount the knowledge of those who come to the IBCLC credential from backgrounds other than RN. It seems too much like discounting the mother's knowledge of her own child because the medical person has a particular diagnosis in mind and isn't really listening. I do not mean to sound like there are no effective RN-LCs - there certainly are. And there can be, and are, equally effective non-RN-LCs doing equally good work. Let's not create a divide within our profession. 


Sorry if that comes off as a personal vent. 


Cindy Garrison BS, IBCLC 
practicing in Pittsburgh, PA 

Donna says, 


<<. I 
see the trend of IBCLCs needing another credential, namely RN. There are 
many hospitals that will not hire an IBCLC unless they are also RNs. That 
eliminates so many good IBCLCs. >> 


********************************************************************** 

I've said before, and I'll say it yet again -- most of our finest IBCLCs 
are NON-RNs. If I attempted to list the top 20 IBCLCs in our profession and 
I'm not going to do it because I'd be sure to leave out someone excellent, 
I would be willing to wager that 16 of the top 20 are NON RNs. 

That said, hospitals that do not hire anyone but RN IBCLCs do it for a 
VERY pragmatic reason. Staffing. They can pull an RN IBCLC to L&D, NICU, 
Mother-Baby -- wherever the need is, and wherever her particular expertise in 
Maternal Child Health lies. To administrations way of thinking, they get 
two for the price of one, and have an extra "on call" person to pull if 
needed. A crisis in L&D of low staffing will always supercede lactation. 

It isn't right -- it isn't fair -- it isn't just -- but it is. Period. 

Jan Barger, RN, MA, IBCLC, FILCA 
Lactation Education Consultants 
Wheaton IL 



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