Amen!
Chayn in Israel, IBCLC

On Fri, Aug 12, 2011 at 1:08 AM, Katherine Lilleskov
<[log in to unmask]>wrote:

> To me the incredibly ironic aspect of all of this, is that as a new RN 90%
> of the most useful information for actually doing my job was taught to me by
> other RN's who either officially or unofficially oriented me to my new job.
> I had taken all of the anatomy and physiology and sociology etc etc. It did
> not help me one bit in the birthing room to know that I could name the bones
> in the hand....which at that point I couldn't anymore because I had
> forgotten everything.
>
> There is no way on earth that taking these courses is going to make anybody
> a better LC. Especially the ones working in the hospital...in the hospital
> you are working with such an early stage of the lactation process that all
> of the detective work can't even be really done. So even if in some way, it
> might be useful to have those courses, the place where they will be least
> useful would be in the hospital where many of the RN iBCLC's work.
>
> As mothers and babies journey throgh the proces of lactation the waters can
> become very murky and not uncommonly it is necessary to do medical detective
> work...where is her milk...is it her pituitary, her thyroid, her PCOS etc
> etc.Why is this baby have difficulty latching? But what LC's need is either
> to be guided by an experienced LC who can train her the way I was trained as
> a new nurse or targeted training which focuses on doing the necessary
> detective work to be a good LC. That education would involve courses in the
> physiology of the brain and breast as they relate to lacation. The oral
> anatomy of the newborn mouth and the anatomy and physiology of the gut of
> both mother and baby.  We do NOT need to spend a year learning how ATP
> provides energy that fuels the cells of the body and how mitochondria
> function....It's idiotic. I thought it was stupid for nursing since it did
> not make me a better nurse and even stupider for this.
>
> And my last point in this rant is that it is very unfair to have people
> take useless course work but even more so when the courses are going to be
> expensive and they are preparing for a career which does often not even pay
> the rent! So while I resented having to spend a lot of time learning things
> I KNEW I was going to immediately forget while being trained to be an RN, at
> least I knew I was going to come out and make a competetive salary. I am
> working as an LC because I am passionate about the field but I know that I
> could not afford to take all of those courses to do this, because it would
> take so long to pay for them. So you are not only excluding people in other
> countries, you are excluding people who have less money than their more
> fortunate sisters. This whole thing is so unfair.
>
> To sum up....we should be spending our time improving the mentoring options
> and also thinking outside of the box and coming up with education that
> targets the needs of LC's and their clients not the generalized stuff that
> everybody has to take and nobody uses!
>
> Kathy Lilleskov RN IBCLC
>
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