> 1.  Did these VERY overworked and understaffed nurses get lazy because the LCs
> are around?
> 2.  Do you suspect breastfeeding isn't the real issue?


Marie...........I'm so sorry to hear about the hassles, it is never
"fun" to work where you climb uphill everyday. I suspect you hit it with
#2 and #1 combined. You mentioned you guys were all staff nurses prior
to becoming staff LCs. As an advanced practice nurse, I've found many
situations where the other nurses resent "us" because they think we have
such cush jobs. They think we believe we are above the "scut" work and
instead of being supportive in clinical situations and being there for
the patients, they take out their aggression on the patients in passive
aggressive ways which then make our work harder and the patient's life
more miserable. I can't tell you how many times nurses have called the
doc on call rather than the CNM for low risk patients and started an
intervention circle that didn't need to be started. It makes more work
for them ultimetley,and hurts the patients, but they don't see that.
They focus on the fact we are slightly more independent, and I think
that irks them. When you get a whole unit in on it, it is a nightmare.

Educate the doctors involved........are their patients encountering more
hospital time due to interference?

What about the head nurse/MCN supervisor?  Any support from them?

How independent are you? Can you write orders? Use incident reports when
the orders are not followed(you know the doctors will NOT allow this to
happen to their patients)

What about the parents.........where can you influence the cycle to get
them to make official complaints? Administrators usually care about the
doctor satisfaction first and then the patients need to be satisfied.

Be sure any satisfaction survey done has the LC section as a separate
place on the survey.........this will point out the great satisfaction
from your dept and point the dissatifaction finger back to the nurses.


Look for all those small steps that you make with patients each day.
Someone on here posted once about bringing out those babies names/photos
periodically to refresh the sense of accomplishment. You do make an
important positive impact in families' lives everyday.....just try to
keep that at the forefront of your memory each day.

Good Luck,
Bari Creager,CNM/IBCLC
(who several times wanted to join a commune with her friends and have
garden detail each day!)
College Station,Tx