Pam Mazzella Di Bosco attended that birth at my hospital, we have discussed
this issue with lack of assessment skills with some of our nurses....more than
I would like to admit.  Our nurses first had to take a 4 hour breastfeeding
class with a LC.  Then a little less than a year ago new nurses had to do that
plus follow us for 4 hours on the floor.  Well, needless to say LOTS of nurses
have not followed us and now the only requirement they have is to spend 4
hours with us, no more class time.  So we cram as much into the four hours at the
bedside with them as we can get.  I know which nurse Pam is speaking about and
just the other day she called me to come see a baby.  Her comment, "Mom has
colostrum".  I, of course, came back with a DAH, no kidding, joking type of
remark.  She then explained, well you know what I mean you can express it......I
thought to myself....did she NOT UNDERSTAND everything she has learned from me
and 3 other LCs at our hospital and that time at the bedside with Pam???  I
then said, "Listen, all moms have colostrum, you don't have to have them try to
express it, it only puts doubt in their mind if they don't do it correctly
and don't see anything, focus on a proper latch and positioning".  This nurse
and I are very friendly to each other but she got miffed at me when I insisted
that saying a mom has colostrum was not an amazing thing to observe!  She has
numerous times told me, "this mom doesn't have a drop of colostrum."  I just
cringe and want to scream.  So some people don't absorb the information the way
we would expect them to.  I certainly thought she would stop after Pam and her
client educated her at the bedside.....something she should have already
known since she did take our 4 hour class.

Deep breath.  Tomorrow I work alone all day......the place was becoming a mad
house when I left......all of those c-sections and inductions started back up
after the holiday.  Today I found 2 moms who desperately needed help but the
nurses thought they were OK and had paged me.  If I hadn't had the extra time
today to randomly go into some rooms they would have been overlooked.  So yes
the nurses need better skills and more time to do proper assessments.  When
ever I can find the nurse I pull her in the room to show her what is or isn't
going on with the nursing so I hope some of them learn from those experiences.

Pam Hendrix, BA, RN, IBCLC
S. Flordia Hospital Based
It has been cool at night.....I am loving it!

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