Isabella -- all you "need"  to be hired to work as an IBCLC is ... an
IBCLC.

It is, however, not at all uncommon for a hospital in the USA to *also*
require the IBCLC to have an RN license.  This is a
political/administrative decision on the part of each hospital:  it
facilitates the hospital's ability to get the person's services reimbursed,
and allows the person to be "pulled" from lactation to work a shift or two
solely as a nurse.

Every facility cobbles together its own system.  I work per diem at a large
hospital ... it has had "dedicated IBCLCs" (meaning we ONLY do IBCLC work)
for over two decades.  Some of us who work there also are RNs, but we are
scheduled and paid and supervised ONLY with lactation in mind.  Just to
make you nuts and confuse you, some of my colleagues who are RN IBCLCs
*also* work there as RNs.  So when I see them on my rare days there, I have
to jokingly ask, "Are you a nurse today, or an IBCLC?"  We are administered
through the Patient Education Department, though we have full clinical
privileges with moms, have one IBCLC dedicated solely to the NICU.  We also
get all the in-house mail generated by the nursing (as in RN-nursing)
department.  Go figure.

I wrote a piece for the ILCA blog about IBCLC job security and advocacy
that has links to the position papers (including ILCA's "Role and Impact of
the IBCLC") that you may find of use as you are discussing the issue of
getting hired at a hospital as a non-RN IBCLC.  Since that April 2012
piece, ILCA's strategic plan has been revised to highlight in even stronger
terms the professional organization's objective of promoting the IBCLC
credential and profession.  A second piece I did highlighted in July 2012
some of the ways IBCLCs can do that -- starting today .
http://lactationmatters.org/2012/04/24/job-security-and-ibclc-advocacy/
http://lactationmatters.org/2012/07/31/ilcas-new-strategic-plan-begins-with-your-elevator-speech-about-ibclcs/
-- 
Liz Brooks JD IBCLC FILCA
ILCA President (2012-14)
Wyndmoor, PA, USA

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