Okay, Laura, you made my fur stand up.  If you have all these extra
responsibilities in your hospital, it is because you have chosen to take them
on, or your hospital requires them of you.  It is not because you have some
enhanced status because you happen to be an RN as well as an IBCLC.  Even
though I have kept my RN license, I have worked exclusively as an IBCLC in a
hospital for the last 9 years.  I am required to keep my CPR certification
current, but so are the cleaning people.  Even though I used to teach
neonatal resuscitation in my former role, I no longer keep up to date on
that.  Nor do I have to do ANY of the competencies that the nurses do,
because even though I have an RN license, I no longer work as a nurse.  You
are clearly NOT required by your license to resuscitate babies or pass meds
if you are working as an IBCLC.  It sounds to me like your hospital has
blurred the roles.

I think we all bring our own unique talents to our IBCLC role.  The IBCLC who
is a former teacher, dietician, or LLL Leader has knowledge that you, as an
RN, do not.  Some of the very BEST in our field were never nurses.  It is my
contention that IBCLC pay scales ought to be absolutely separate and based on
knowledge and experience in lactation, not try to take advantage of
colleagues who are not nurses.  Being a nurse does NOT necessarily make you a
better lactation consultant.  I am especially cranky about this issue because
I work for a hospital system that does not have a separate lactation
consultant pay scale and IMO is taking advantage of our LPN IBCLC, and in the
past terribly underpaid an excellent LLL Leader IBCLC.

Becky Krumwiede, RN, IBCLC
Appleton, Wisconsin

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