Teresa makes some excellent points on why apprenticeship systems work. I
agree with her. Her contributions to Dr. Jack (not an IBCLC) Newman's book are
obvious proof of her knowledge, training and expertise in our field. But,
I'm not saying apprenticeships/mentorships should be eliminated. On the
contrary, we NEED apprenticeships. We need people who have excellent technical
skills and counseling skills, and business management skills mentoring future
IBCLCs. I'm saying they should be standardized, guaranteed to be of sufficient
quality and quantity to turn out professionals, and to guarantee the safety
of the public. Yes, doctors, dentists (who were also at one time in the US)
midwives, lawyers and other professionals used to enter their profession
through mentoring. Times change, though. Consumers of professional services,
these and others, are not willing, nor should they be expected to play Russian
Roulette with the kind of medical or legal service they pay for. They are not
willing to accept informally and unevenly trained "professionals", and I
don't blame them. We all complain about it ourselves. Even with the standards
put in place by the medical and legal professions, there are still some
screw-ups out there; everybody knows the story of the surgeon who cut off the
guy's left leg instead of his right. The point is, with better training, comes
overall better service.
Requiring education does not rule out anyone. I went to college at what is
now the equivalent of a $40 K a year with no help from anyone. I put it
together with loans, scholarships, working my butt off, working summers, etc. If
you want something bad enough, you find a way to do it. Thousands of women
go to college or pursue other higher education, or even finish high school
degrees for that matter, and work outside the home with young children. Women
who have served in the Armed Forces in the US can use their education
benefits. There are other scholarship options. We don't live in a society anymore
that allows everyone to stay at home.
I respectfully disagree that a medically oriented IBCLC (of which I proudly
declare I am one) would not be as good counselors, or cannot or do not like to
be the warm and fuzzy type too. Nothing makes me happier than when I can
combine my skills to help a breastfeeding dyad achieve their goals. OK, I
will admit that using the broadest brush possible, like about 5000 miles wide, I
have seen, in my limited personal experience that mother-to-mother counselors
generally have better counseling skills than medical professionals. This
is exactly WHY we need standardized training. With that, we can get those
with the less-than wonderful skills to work on them (a lot) until they get the
idea, not spend 2 hours on it in a one week butt in the seat course.
The exam cannot be made "more demanding" or "more difficult" because (1) it
is an "entry level" exam; i.e., by the role delineation study, the skills and
knowledges defined by practicing IBCLCs included in the exam are what new
IBCLCs should be able to do. and (2) it is an INTERNATIONAL exam. Study
materials have to be available to candidates either in their own languages,
English as a second language or English. How many languages is Riordan translated
into? None that I know of. There are bilingual pioneers out there in
Poland and Iceland and other countries that have put together wonderful education
programs and translated volumes of information in order to allow women from
their country to study and become IBCLCs. They do it totally voluntarily.
For free. On their own time. The problem here, if it is a problem, is that it
is an "international" profession that is 95% American, Canadian, Australian
and European.
The idea of having a written part, or a counseling report, on the exam would
be great, as I think this is one area we all could use constant improvement
and practice on. It is something that is exceedingly difficult to test in
the multiple choice format. But, it is economically impossible to do this. [
Unfortunately, the general IBCLC public does not have access to how much it
costs to actually write and administer an exam. It would surprise and horrify
you, considering what you pay for it. Did you know that most credentialing
organizations this size have a handful of test centers across the nation and
applicants go there (and don't complain about it to take the test?) Did you
know the average cost of an exam of this type is several hundred dollars more
than the fee for the IBCLC exam? ] But, I digress. In addition, this type
of addition to the exam process would make the exam psychometrically invalid
because it would be completely subjective. That would discredit the exam in
the eyes of the certifying agency that blesses the organizations who grant
certifications. (Very complicated stuff. See _www.noca.org_
(http://www.noca.org) , and click on the NCCA tab. You have to really care about certification
to get into this; trust me.)
So, we are beginning to see how complicated this issue is. It's not just a
question of 'write some harder questions' or 'make fewer hours required', or
'not everybody can afford to take a few classes and buy a few books'. Being
an international board certified lactation consultant is a profession, not a
hobby, not a volunteer counselor, not an, God forbid, "add-on credential" that
you can only achieve if you are already an RN. It's just like any other
profession. We need to think of it that way.
In closing, I want to say that I for one would not be crazy about having the
lovely lady from Guatemala who cuts my hair and with whom I communicate with
sign language and photographs filling any of my cavities, no matter how many
dentists she watched. But she does a great job with my hair, after having
gone to school to study it.
Barbara
***********************************************
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
|
