I have been working 24 hours a week for 4 years at my current hospital.  We have about 140 births a month.  I also have a wonderful partner who works 24 different hours a week, so we cover every day except Sunday. We see every nursing mom, every day. We call each mom after she goes home at least twice, most more than that. We see outpatients and do weight checks for all babies who do not have their first doctor visit in the first week. We teach a prenatal class, lead two support groups and a back to work class. We outreach the community with teaching at our local health department, Winthrop University, and the Catawba Indian Nation.

Education of the staff has always been a goal for us.  Right now our nurses are working on Lactation Education Module #40.  We offered the nurses a new module each month for 36 months, but we have slowed down a bit this year and we are doing one every 3 months.  For each module completed, the nurse gets 30 minutes of educational credit.  Some of our nurses are very eager, and complete the module within a few days of when it arrives in the nurses lounge.  Some take a while, some never do any of them.  They are not mandatory, but each module has about 15 nurses that complete it. We have a drawing each time at the end of the module for a free lunch, and if a nurse completes 6 in a row, we give them a little gift. I felt very proud when one of our nurses went to a breastfeeding seminar and came back saying she had already learned everything she heard from our modules.

We also have a breastfeeding bulletin board in the nurses lounge with interesting articles, updates, and upcoming conferences posted.  Nothing else can go on our bulletin board.  We update it frequently.

The reason we have slowed down a bit on our modules this year is because we have begun 18 hour training sessions for our nurses. These training sessions train 2 nurses from Labor and Delivery, 2 from the Nursery, and 2 Mother-Baby nurses each session. We teach the sessions four times a year.
The sessions are mandatory, and the nurses are paid for their training time.  Fortunately our manager is a big supporter of breastfeeding!    So far we have trained 26 of our nurses, and expect to take another year to complete all the training, and then do ongoing training for new hires a couple times a year.
We have seen tremendous changes since beginning our classes.  The nurses are much more eager, even the "old dogs" have learned some new tricks and are much more enthusiastic. We try to make the trainings fun and interesting.  The first one discusses advantages of breastfeeding, disadvantages of formula, and we spend a long time on the importance of bonding in the hospital with emphasis on bonding after delivery and the importance of the nurse's role in that regard.  The second and third on involves the physiology of lactation, what is normal, assisting moms, latch lessons complete with lipstick and balloons, pumping (we have a contest with a prize for the one who can set up the pump quickest), and how to wake a sleepy baby.  The last one deals with special care babies, kangaroo care, answering questions, being consistent in our information, the baby friendly initiative, how to become an IBCLC, and alternative feeding methods.  I have been amazed at how consistent our nurses are now. I no longer hear moms saying that they are discouraged because they hear different information from each nurse who comes in the room. It is gratifying to be unified, although it will always be an ongoing educational process.  I guess you could say I am very proud of our nurses and the progress that we have made on a daily basis. We have a long way to go toward being baby friendly, but the process of becoming is also very very helpful to our nursing families.  

Feeling like sharing today!
Ann Calandro, RNC, IBCLC
Piedmont Medical Center
Rock Hill, SC
USA

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