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Date: | Thu, 30 Nov 2006 17:06:16 EST |
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If you wish to know what all the initials mean, one can always contact the
course director and ask what the initials mean, what prerequisites exist for
the program, what public safeguards are in place, and why they insist on
holding on to these designations or in some cases creating competing credentials to
the IBCLC. These "certifications" are used as marketing tools to entice
people to take the course, so that potential students will feel that their time
and money is well spent by emerging with a set of letters after their name. In
some cases, it is much easier to sit for 3-5 days and take a little test
than it is to secure college level preparation and thousands of hours of
clinical experience. These letters serve to create an alphabet soup bowl of
confusion for the public, for the hospitals that employ lactation consultants, for
insurers, and for legislators and policy makers.
Now the American Medical Association is targeting allied health professions.
They are going to examine the education and training of allied health
professionals and provide points of comparisons for legislatures. The AMA is
working hard to restrain how we are able to provide professional lactation care and
services. Because the LC community cannot agree on a standardized
preparation path we have left ourselves open for another profession to do it for us.
How are we to be licensed if all these little courses insist that their way is
the only way and refuse to collaborate on standardizing pre-service education
and supervised clinical experience? The nursing profession failed to do this
and is continuously paying the price. Most of these issues boil down to
money. The AMA does not want other professions to intrude on their ability to
secure payment for services. They wish to make sure that the bulk of limited
health care dollars flow to physicians.That's why the AMA owns the CPT codes
that are used to bill insurance companies. Lactation courses provide income for
the directors of the programs. Placing lactation education into colleges
could disrupt the status quo. The addition of another credential from IBLCE is a
baffling approach to the above problems.
Marsha Walker, RN, IBCLC
Weston, MA
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