I believe that in California and many other states nurses must have continuing education, just like physicians, to maintain their licensure. Nurse midwives and nurse practicitioners are also LICENSED as advanced practice nurses. The only people that are able to bill MediCAL (Medicare) are LICENSED. If lactation consultants want to be taken seriously by other healthcare professionals and paid for all their good work, they will seek licensure. Nancy Nancy E. Wight MD, IBCLC, FABM, FAAP Neonatologist, Sharp Mary Birch Hospital for Women and Children's Hospital Medical Director, Sharp HealthCare Lactation Services San Diego, CA [log in to unmask] *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(R) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html