45 hours of lactation specific education are required to sit the exam.
45
clock hours of education, and not even at the college level, are required
to
prepare for a career. There are no requirements as to the content of these
45 hours. Theoretically, it could be 45 hours of basic positioning and
latch,
and the applicant would have met the requirement. How many clock hours do
other people spend in classrooms preparing for other allied health care
careers? At the present time, these hours are not even required to be
CERPs
(although it is strongly recommended), which would guarantee at least a
certain
level of quality and relatively valid subject matter. What happens is that
most
people accumulate their hours, rush off to take the “lactation consultant
course” which through clever marketing and hospital administration pressure
seems to have become a “requirement” to sit the exam –it is NOT--, which
gives
you 45 CERPs, and voila you are eligible to sit the exam.
Taking any 45 hour course or review type course in the time immediately
before sitting the exam if anything, should serve as a review of what you
have
learned over the past years you have accumulated your practice hours and
read
the books (at least some of them) on the recommended reading list. It isn’t
currently a question on the exam application, but I would love to see a
poll of
how many of the candidates read any of the books on the list beyond
Lawrence
and Riordan before the exam. They don’t even read the entire Candidate
Information Guide, based on questions I was accustomed to answering.
Ideally, individuals preparing to become IBCLCs should be thinking of it as
at least a 2-3 preparation experience. I always advised “newly in love
with
breastfeeding” IBCLC wannabe’s to take a week-long course, do some reading
from the recommended reading list, go to some conferences, and THEN begin
accumulating hours. If they were nurses, and had already begun (or indeed
finished) their hours, they still need to do these activities. All of
this, and
more, is in the Candidate Information Guide.
45 Hour Requirement, Continuing education and the CERP system: The CERP
system is another area that, I believe, needs major review and revamping.
Currently, CERPs are granted after an evaluation of the program, the
speakers CV,
the program bibliography, and payment of a miniscule fee. Other than this,
there is no verification of the speaker’s actual knowledge on the subject,
or
skill at presenting the information. Even more disturbing, there is no
sure
way to verify actual attendance and LEARNING of the attendees at the
sessions.
Course providers often cannot even verify attendance, let alone that
participants learned anything. I personally have attended more than one
conference
and registered only to find the completed CERP certificate for 15 or more
CERPS already in the folder! Why not just see the sites of Chicago or New
York
in this case? Do you attend every session at every conference? If the
certificate is preprinted, do you correct it?
Which brings us to another point. Recertification is currently required
every 5 years by exam or CERPs, and at 10 years by exam only. The
recertification by CERPs is, essentially, a gift. Continuing education has
not been linked
to continuing competency. The only means of guaranteeing continuing
competency is through examination. Our young field is continually
changing. So
are others. Other allied health care professions and international
professional certifications require recertification by exam every 2 or 3
years.
Practicing with out of date information is a Code of Ethics violation.
Think about
that one.
CERPs are also not currently rated or ranked by level or difficulty,
although this is under consideration. Entry level, mid-level and advanced
experienced level program designation not only would help individuals
discern what
would be appropriate for them, it would also help to ensure that at least
an
effort is being made for continuing competency and continuing learning.
I must respectfully disagree with Kathleen B. that there is no real
standard
of information, or standard of care for breastfeeding. We do have the
beginnings of standard of information ad care, based on ILCA’s evidence
based
practice guidelines. They need to be updated regularly of course, but more
importantly, they need to be used! There are IBCLCs in practice who do not
know
they exist. There are others who do not observe them. Is it any wonder
that
MDs and others greet our profession with mixed reviews, if we cannot even
ensure that IBCLCs practice quality, basic care across the board?
(continued)
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