In fact, our usual instructions to a patient with an STI is to have their partner come for treatment or go to their own provider immediately. It is a strongly worded suggestion. I don't write a prescription for someone I haven't seen as a patient. There are lots of good reasons for this rule of thumb, obviously. In the case of thrush, etc., in a breastfeeding dyad, of course I would write prescriptions for both patients because I happen to be trained for that. But most practitioners are not. That's just the way it is, and grumbling about individuals who stick to their scope of practice guidelines just isn't fair to the individual practitioner. The people to grumble at are the educators in med school and NP programs who still give you blank stares when you talk about lactation and maternal/child healthcare. I'm a little prickly about this subject because I had dinner with my old nemesis (head of women's health department at my graduate school) last week and she doesn't even give me the blank stare. She rolls her eyes and says, "There she goes again" to get a laugh from everybody at the table. And my fellow classmates smile uncomfortably because they run into the holes in their training every day now, just as I warned them they would. So if we could sell a comprehensive lactation module to med schools and NP programs, we might see some improvement in continuity of care. Otherwise, we're just wasting our time grumbling at the poor providers out in practice. Bonny Cannell Nothern, RN, MSN, RNC, IBCLC *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html