Morgan hit the nail on the head as far as I can discern from my limited  
hospital experiences, both as a volunteer and as a PPLC called in for  
consultations.  The time factor is a huge problem, but so is the counseling  skills.  
Unfortunately, it's pretty hard to gracefully help people who lack  such skills 
as they usually believe they are just fine!
 
Perhaps some of this stress on hospital IBCLCs could be eliminated by more  
IBCLCs getting into taking Pathway F students, who could do a lot of the 
triage,  then work under the direct supervision of their supervising IBCLC for the 
actual  hours.  These students can be insured, and if we could convince 
hospital  adminisrators to loosen up a bit, help hospital based IBCLCs that these 
people  (once they take a week or two to train them) could actually make their 
lives  SOOO much easier, we might get somewhere.
 
Many years ago, when I was a hospital bf volunteer collecting hours, the  
postpartum staff saved the moms who they designated the "needy whiners" for me,  
because I had the patience and counseling skills for them.  I had the time  to 
listen, and then call in the big guns.  It worked pretty well for  everyone 
concerned.
 
This is another reason why my imaginary AA degree would include lots of  
LLL-based counseling skill/HRE type training.  It works.
 
Barbara

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