> Are the terms medical professional and health care
> professional interchangeable? Do other medical professionals have a
> clear definition of  the role of the IBCLC?
>
> I would love to hear other's feelings about this.
>
I would, too.

> Are the terms medical professional and health care
> professional interchangeable? Do other medical professionals have a
> clear definition of  the role of the IBCLC?
>
> I would love to hear other's feelings about this.
>
> For example, We cannot as IBCLCs diagnose conditions, nor can we script
> medicines.
>
But then, neither can RNs.
I am also interested in the idea of IBCLC as an entry-level designation.
Most people agree that meeting the requirements to write the exam are
fairly difficult. If you do not have another health-care designation, it
is difficult to get into the kind of position that enables you to obtain
the BC hours required. If you are a volunteer, you have to be accredited
or certified or properly supervised, and standards required for any of
those are likely to increase rather than decrease over the years.
Moreover, many people come to the exam "post-degree", although the
degree is not always in health care. Without a university degree, the
experience mentioned above would take several years to acquire, and
would be, in most other jobs, considered as being that "equivalent
experience" that replaces a high educational requirement. So, in a
sense, studying for the exam is comparable to doing post-graduate work.
I have had post-doctoral "entry level" jobs, but I don't think this is
what the term usually implies. IBCLCs come from all different
backgrounds, and a breastfeeding-friendly society depends on all their
strengths, as well as all of those offered by non-IBCLC "breastfeeding
counsellors" or "lactation specialists". There are teachers who know how
to produce educational materials for mothers and specialists,
counsellors who have special insight into the mother - baby
relationship, graduate students in the "pure" sciences who can do the
research that needs to be done, alternative health practioners who have
the knowledge and experience to caution or enthuse over herbs or
homeopathic remedies, linguists who can trace the evolution of the
hyphenation of breastfeeding (or the archaic form, breast-feeding) and
even literature majors who can write about all of this, but tend to
forget where their passion was leading them.
Oh, yes. I have no trouble recognizing that I have entered into a new
field, but I actually think that I did that when I started learning
about helping mothers and babies, not when I wrote the exam. Translators
in Canada do not consider the certification exam to be "entry level", I
don't think. The requirements are similar (university degree in
translation and two years of experience, with adjustments for
equivalents in both), the failure rate is much higher, jobs are roughly
as dependent on the certification -- you can work freelance without it,
but not in a government setting (or, for practical purposes, on a
full-time basis). Differences? Most people here know what a translator
does, and businesses budget for payment.
Jo-Anne Elder-Gomes, chronologically PhD (literature), Cert. Trans.,
IBCLC

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