Hello All,
I too find this post very interesting let me explain why. I am a RN who after 10
years decided to change specialties and follow my passion to help mothers
and babies with breastfeeding difficulties. This stemmed from my own personal
experiences after delivering preterm twins due to HELLP syndrome.
I returned to work after my babies were a year old casually working as a
public health nurse in the healthy babies/children program. It was here that I
decided to start gaining hours towards writing my IBCLC's. But after a year of
only casual hours, I decided I needed to intern with experienced IBCLC's to
gain the knowledge I needed, to see things with my own eyes, not just read
them in a book. This meant volunteering my time, with no pay in order to gain
this experience. A big price to pay, but I feel it's been worth it.
I was very lucky that a very experienced and well known private practice
IBCLC took me "under her wing" to show me the basics. (Thank you Joan
Fisher!) I then approached many IBCLC's in community clinics so I could get
this experience as well, (Thank you Janice Sullivan!) and finally approached
many hospitals until one finally agreed to take me in (as they had never had
a "student" before who wasn't affiliated with a school of some sort willing to
do time for free! (Thank you Joanne Sexton!)
I made the choice to intern with private practice, community and hospital
because I believe that IBCLC's need to have as much varied experience as
possible and not be pigeon holed in only seeing babies of a specific time frame.
It is also important to see the "normal" side of breastfeeding, especially if your
own personal experience has been anything but. That's why attending mother-
to-mother support meetings is so interesting as well, such as LLL.
From my time in community breastfeeding clinics I have counseled women with
babies 48 hours old all the way up to weaning 3 years plus. This in itself has
made it such a fabulous learning experience.
I was hoping to write the exams this year under pathway F, which is new this
year. But unfortunately missed the deadline by 6 weeks (don't get me started,
bit of a sore spot!) It is direct mentoring with a minimum of one IBCLC who
must have re-certified at least once already, along with education hours. I
have had 5 fabulous mentors, due to my varied clinical experiences.
The completion of all the clinical competencies (3 pages worth) must be
completed in order to qualify to sit the exam as well. After going through this
process I think all potential IBCLC’s would benefit greatly from a process of
direct mentoring in all the clinical competencies. It would delete the problem
of post partum nurses (for an example that was given in a earlier post) having
enough hours because they have worked for so long and just have their
supervisors sign off. This way if you haven't done it, you can't sit the exam
it's that simple.
I'll end with saying a very happy IBCLC day to you all, and if you have thought
of mentoring a student, please do so. You will enjoy the experience as much
as the student will, plus we novices need you leaders to show us the way!
Thank you,
Camilla Aviss, RN,BHSc(N)
***********************************************
Archives: http://community.lsoft.com/archives/LACTNET.html
To reach list owners: [log in to unmask]
Mail all list management commands to: [log in to unmask]
COMMANDS:
1. To temporarily stop your subscription write in the body of an email: set lactnet nomail
2. To start it again: set lactnet mail
3. To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet
4. To get a comprehensive list of rules and directions: get lactnet welcome
|
