>
>
>So anyway, what I'm getting at is that maybe we need to abandon the word
>mentor when we talk about the clinical instructor role.  If it is marketed
>as a clinical instructor, and just as importantly conducted as a clinical
>instructor relationship, it might not be as hard for people to see the
>monetary value in it.
>For what it's worth...
>
>Regards,
>Cindi Swisher, RN, IBCLC
>
I agree, Cindi.

I love the model Nikki describes, and know it well through my work in
the community and in the arts. However, I would say that working towards
accreditation in a profession is slightly different, just as the
apprenticeship program in the skilled trades is slightly different from
apprenticeship in the fine crafts. Could we learn from these other,
largely woman-to-woman, lay, relationship-based models? Certainly. On
the other hand, the recognition of the profession, the accreditation
process, which is focussed more clearly on developing knowledge, skills,
and a bunch of things I'm having trouble defining <vbg> seems to imply
something different. I think the process to becoming a volunteer with La
Leche League, which I see as an extension of the mother-to-mother and
even the mother-baby relationship, is more akin to developing a
relationship with a trusted  mentor. On the other hand, the mentors I
have had and still have simply fell out of the sky. They have proved to
be exceptionally generous in offering guidance. The masters I have
studied with have been people who have taught me a bit of what they
knew. But they were not people who were expected to teach a particular
set of skills, get me to a specific goal (providing skills of basic
practice), and I imagine that they would not have been interested in
being constrained in this way. They went beyond  providing instruction
and establishing rapport: our work together has been about relationship,
a higher and deeper value than hands-on, head-first learning.

It so happens, though, that my LC internship supervisor has been a
mentor to me. Attie Sandink (now back on Lactnet and, I hope, reading
this), gave of herself very generously, helping me learn the skills I
needed to have by practising them and discussing the learning process
with me, and also encouraging me to pursue this path. I owe her big
time. :-)

Jo-Anne Elder-Gomes, IBCLC (tried, tested and true)

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