Here in Israel for the past several years I have given lectures on
breastfeeding in the nursing school in our medical complex.  Given the
limited amount of time, which is anywhere from 4-6 hours per group, I
usually do Milk Transfer and Breastfeeding Management which cover the
basics.  These students then come and work with me for at least a day
when they do rotations, and many of them have ended up working in our
department when they graduate.  Their counseling skills, and basic
knowledge are better than some of the nurses who have been working for
many years.  
Many do their final theses on breastfeeding and some have shown interest
in taking further courses, in which case I refer them to Denise Fisher's
on-line courses.  At least I know that the next generation of nurses
will be more able to give mothers the help they need.  
One year, I let my advanced  LC students lecture in a full day course we
gave to third year nursing students.  It gave my students a chance to
lecture to a professional group.  I think that the most important part
of our work as IBCLC's is not just to plug babies on the breast, but to
know how to teach others to do it.  And just as we check milk transfer
when we are working with mothers, we have to learn to check information
transfer with those that we teach.  That was the hardest part of the
lesson.  All of the students felt that they lectured well, but not one
could tell me if the students got what they wanted them to learn.  
I think that this might be a good subject for the next IBCLC conference:
how to present information in an interesting way, but also how to know
that this information was transferred to the students, and I don't mean
by exam.  
 
Esther Grunis, IBCLC, who is on the way to take a nice long walk on the
beach
Lis Maternity Hospital
Tel Aviv, Israel
 

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