The following post is a guest post by Jennifer Johnson who writes on the topic of Nurse Practitioner schools. I asked her to write about this topic to give pregnant and breastfeeding moms, and those interested in pursuing a career in nursing, an idea of what nurses actually learn about breastfeeding in school. Thank you Jennifer for providing Breastfeeding Moms Unite! with this article. Disclosure: This is not a sponsored or paid post.
What nursing schools actually teach nurses about breastfeeding is limited in most nursing schools, unless, of course, the nursing student is studying to become a nurse-midwife at the master’s level. Chances are the best education a nursing student will receive about breastfeeding will be during their clinical rotations in obstetrics, and even that will depend on the type of initiative the nursing student takes, as well as what the RNs they encounter are willing to teach them.
Why? Because there’s so many other things to learn! In the classroom, BSN programs emphasize nursing procedures—nursing students learn general nursing techniques in learning labs, such as starting IVs, inserting catheters, dressing wounds, administering medications, patient assessment and checking vitals, and later apply them in real life during clinical training. Prior to procedural learning, nursing students take core courses in anatomy & physiology, pathology and pharmacology. Some nursing core courses cover breastfeeding, but only briefly. (emphasis mine).
The nurses I have encountered have said that the best information on the benefits of breastfeeding came not through nursing school but instead came through required continuing education (CE) courses they took either to maintain their nursing license or when it was required by the hospital when the nurse began working in a hospital’s neonatal unit. However, not every hospital makes CE courses on breastfeeding mandatory for nurses entering the neonatal unit.
That being said, some of the CE courses on breastfeeding are extremely informative! Check out this one I found titled “Breastfeeding: The Nurse’s Role” offered by South Dakota State University’s College of Nursing. The course is designed to educate nurses in how to explain the advantages of breastfeeding to a new mother, to emphasize the importance of breastfeeding immediately after birth, and even to demonstrate four positions to hold a baby for optimum breastfeeding. The first module even includes important information on the recommendations by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Dietetic Association that a mother should breastfeed exclusively for the first six months of a healthy infant’s life.
Another CE course I found for RNs was actually an in-depth Lactation Counselor Certificate Program offered through Healthy Children’s Center for Breastfeeding.
So what can we learn from this? We need to make our voices heard and push our local hospitals to require all nurses entering the neonatal unit to receive breastfeeding education training through continuing education. There needs to be a push for this practice to be written into hospital policy. Just remember that many hospitals already have this as a goal, but are having difficulty realizing the goal due to thin staffing models.
By-line:
This guest post is contributed by Jennifer Johnson, who writes on the topics of NP Schools. She welcomes your comments at her email Id: j.johnson19june@gmail.com.
Tags: breastfeeding, Lactation Counselor Certificate Program, nurses, nursing school
Very interesting. I definitely will write to my hospital to recommend they require that training for the ob nurses! (I was already planning to write a letter complaining about the lack of a chair to nurse the baby in and the fact I was given medicine that has a warning against taking it when breastfeeding on it! I figured I should tell them soon so they have time to improve things before next time I have a baby!)
.-= Maman A Droit´s last blog ..Tuesday is Newsday =-.
Sounds like a good plan! When I first realized that nurses didn’t have much, if any, background in breastfeeding, I was appalled. I understand that there is a lot to learn when you’re becoming a nurse but new moms think that a doctor or nurse should know about breastfeeding when they have problems, and instead of saying “sorry, I don’t have the answer to that question,” they generally answer your question but give you false or misleading information. Which makes them perfect targets for formula companies. Anyhow, I was happy to have Jennifer offer to write a post about this because more new moms need to know that they can’t fully rely on nurses for breastfeeding help. The best people to speak to are International Board Certified Lactation Consultants and La Leche League Leaders.
Sad but true…
I- of course- had my training a thousand years ago and there was only about a 30 min section of one class covering mostly anatomy & physiology of lactation…. not much on management of breastfeeding. That may have been it. I have no recollection of really helping any mom during my OB rotation in school. The nurses owned the babies back then and they stayed in the nursery most of the time!
My experience at 3 different hospitals from 1974 thru 1981 before I intensely studied lactation has been that a prevailing approach or “policy” was followed by all duty nurses “just because” or “because the doctor wants his moms to follow these rules”.
There was no current research or evidence to back anything up. One nurse then taught the next new nurse this incorrect, outdated information and so on. This practice still exists in many areas and unfortunately, they don’t know or realize they are wrong. The mothers were then given very little if any instruction mostly incorrect. Dated textbooks were the only resources.
Now things are much better in many areas. Lactation education is just starting to be recognized as an important piece for nursing and medical schools. The true recognized lactation experts are IBCLC’s. Those other professionals who have been formally educated in lactation, and remain current, can provide sound effective management advice. LLLL’s are awesome and also have some good educational background to become leaders.
Nurses today who work with mother’s and babies should and must have sound lactation management education.
Everybody should do their part and write letters to the editor of their paper/ or their hospital’s board to ask for this. JCAHO is now measuring exclusive breastfeeding as a perinatal core measure. This has become a catalyst for change for many facilities. It is for ours. We were given a presentation on this yesterday.
I do what I can. I have annual educational competencies usually coinciding with WBW. I also have 3 nursing schools which come thru our department who utilize my PowerPoint Presentations as an education requirement in their curriculum! Good for them !!
This is an important post Melodie and I am going to post my reply on my blog with a link back to you just to help spread the word!
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[...] encouraging feedback from her latest post on “Breastfeeding Moms Unite” blog entitled Do Nurses Learn about Breastfeeding in Nursing School? a guest article by Jennifer Johnson who writes about Nurse Practitioner [...]
I have a BScN from McMaster University (Hamilton, ON) and I can say that I had *no* formal breastfeeding education! I think my entire lactation education came in the form of about 45 minutes of peer-tutored learning. Also, not all nursing students will have an OB/post-partum rotation – we were assigned to either pediatrics or OB/PP and I got peds.
Mind you, I have since become a LLL leader and I will (maybe when my newborn is a bit older) be asking if there’s anything we can do to help nursing students learn – maybe by going into classes and talking about it!
.-= Kim´s last blog ..New toy! =-.
I just talked to a nurse the other day about this topic. She just completed the “Professional Education in Breastfeeding and Lactation” (a 3-6 day) course that’s offered in most major cities. She said she thought she knew a lot being a midwife and having her own children, yet the information she gained from the course went well beyond any nursing courses or life experience.
She was so excited she’s trying to get the speaker to come at least for a one day conference to educate the nurses AND pediatricians (who often have less knowledge on the topic) in our small town. She mentioned also that with all the studies out there Breastfeeding is getting more attention to it’s importance.
Changes are happening. With more interest in breastfeeding hopefully this course will be offered to all our nurses and pediatricians so they in turn can help mothers. If they can’t, there are lactation consultants. We have free services in our town provided by these ladies at our hospitals, Do you have that in your town?
I think another step in this change is made by mothers like Melonie. They are of great influence to our society to make the changes necessary to make breastfeeding proactive and important part of being up an infant. They are amazing role models for us all! Thank you!
I am a mother and preschool teacher, I’m looking into becoming a Lactation Consultant I want to do it not only for myself, but to educate others (volunteer of course may be the only option). It bothers me to over hear so many women struggling with breastfeeding issues whether it be “lack of milk” to pumping to teething child and so many other things that allow mothers to give up so easily. Breastfeeding may be a natural thing, but it is not instinctual. Meredith Small’s book she describes how a female gorilla raised in a zoo had an infant and attempted to nurse facing her nipple to the back of it’s head. The keepers lined up a group of women breastfeeding outside the cage for the gorilla to observe. The next time she went to feed her infant she did it successfully. This can be seen in other mammals as well.
I want to take part in helping women with the struggles of such a beautiful, powerful, and important part of motherhood. Now, if only it wasn’t a bite out of my wallet and taught in a city four hours away.
oops, sorry Melodie I misspelled your name!
Thank you Melissa, Kim and Katy for your comments. (I didn’t know you were a nurse Kim!) I think this is important stuff for nurses to be talking about to let moms know what’s going on out there in the education system, what needs changing, what is changing, and providing some hope for the future as new policies are put into place. Things sure have changed since 1974 hey Melissa!? But still so many changes still need to be made.
Excellent info! I assumed this was true, but I’ve never actually talked to a nurse about what education she received regarding bf’ing. I would hope, at least, that nurses working with new mothers have more opportunities to take CE courses directly related to breastfeeding. Thanks for this great guest post!
.-= Dionna @ Code Name: Mama´s last blog ..The Joys of Breastfeeding a Toddler #6 =-.
[...] in medical school, but what about the nurses who are taking care of moms post-partum? It turns out they don’t learn much about breastfeeding either. No wonder so many moms feel they weren’t [...]