Hi All -- Karen Koss wrote in support of Yaffa's new position about charting
about BF in hospital. For those of you who do work in hosp as LC's,  where &
how do you document?? Our hosp has us charting on a bedside chart (great
because then all of the staff caring for the pt can read what I wrote). We
have a Pt Education form and Nurses' Progress notes. I usually chart all of
my assessment, observations and teaching on the Ed form, but will note "see
progress notes" if I feel that a narrative is necesssary (i.e. for sore
nipples, etc). In the space marked "water/supplements", I always chart :"not
recomended unless medically indicated" hoping that this will encourage people
to think twice before giving such, or to entertain a MD order for them (not
policy --one of my long-term goals). I chart whether a feeding was observed
and what I observed, i.e. audible swallows, proper position (incl which
positions) & latch-on, etc. I also document all of the educational material
and info that I review with the patient (this takes a few extra minutes, but
in medicine/court, "if it's not written, it wasn't done!"). One of (many)
problem is that my partner & I are only scheduled for 2 hrs per day and our
first priority is to see every patient at least once and anyone that the
nurses flag us down for (**Yaffa, take note: now that we've been there for
almost 2 years, the nurses will say when we walk in the locker room "please
be sure to see Mrs. X today!!"). We also do follow-up phone calls on every BF
patient after discharge; review policies; do one-on-one and inservice for
staff and *nursing students*; follow moms with babies in NICU; and answer
calls from our warm line! All this in two hours per day?--no way! But at
least we're in there and our clients have our number to call for help or
problems along the way after d/c. KathyRubin IBCLC RN   exhausted in Freehold
NJ