ThePeony

I have an ADN and am an IBCLC. I do not work in a hospital though but run a breastfeeding program through WIC

I work for a health dept, basically all I do is educate. I love it.

Another one that took UCSD course and would highly suggest it as well. It wasn't difficult but did take a fair amount of time. I did go on to sit for the IBCLC exam which the course was good prep for.

I started off in ortho just because I did not want to work med surg and ortho was keen to hire me so I went there. I never loved it. After my first child was born, I realized the lack of lactation support in my area, and I ended up getting into that speciality. It wasn't a planned career move at the time, but 7 years later, it has worked very well for me and I love what I do.

I'm in public health, my program does lactation only, but some of the other programs that we offer work with mostly teen/young moms. My favorite is one where an RN goes into the home during the pregnancy and until the child is 2, every other week, and teach the mothers parenting/life skills.

I work part time for a health dept because I have multiple small children (soon to be 4 of them), the logistics of doing 12's was just too much. I only work half a day at a time sometimes even less if I am just doing one home visit. I'm not in home health but rather supervise a small lactation program. I have a lot of flexibility of when I work, I schedule most of my meetings for when it is easiest for me, same with clinic days, and while home visits can often be last minute, I still have the ability to schedule them for when I am able to. I make less then I would working in a hospital but then again, I also wouldn't have the ability to do my paperwork or phone support from my house while my children are sleeping, at preschool, etc... in a hospital.

I was away for 6 years and got a job last year. It is working part time at a clinic running a small program. My previous in-hospital experience was not in this area but I did volunteer extensively while not working in this area. While the pay is not great compared to what I could make in the hospital, I can't beat the hours and the ability to schedule myself for when I want/can work. I also do not have a BSN, someday maybe when kids get older. There is hope, it just may not be quite what you are looking for. I'm planning on staying with this job until all my children are older and then start searching for something else.

I got pregnant right when I was graduating from nursing school. This of course was when nursing jobs were everywhere, I had a job already lined up. I passed my boards, and worked until 2 weeks before she was born. I did end up not going back to that job when my unpaid maternity leave was up, the schedule I had been promised vanished so I took a year off and then started working casually in another specialty. Several children later, I still work part time, but have build a niche for myself in my area so it has worked out well. We had multiple pregnancies in my nursing program, 2 gave birth during the school year, they dropped out during the summer. Another 3 timed it so when we graduated, they were weeks away from giving birth. We had 2 who timed it to give birth during the summer break with plans to return, they did not. The ones who did give birth during the school year were given no special treatment, they were back in class within days, and back to 12 hour clinicals, they were not given extra time to pump during the school day or at clinicals. It was exhausting for them, I would not recommend it.

I work for a part time for a health dept as a RN doing lactation work. I am a certified lactation educator and counselor, I sat in July for the International Board Certified Lactation Consultant exam, still waiting on results for that. I have been asked to run a Breastfeeding Support Group in my area through a healing arts center, they would not provide insurance for anyone leading groups for them. I do carry my own private nursing insurance, and I am not planning to go into private practice as a lactation consultant. The group would be mostly answering questions, I would not be doing assessments, etc... I still want to make sure I am covered insurance wise, would my personal policy be enough with the extra certifications? I am always wary of assuming that insurance covers actual things!

I sat this year for the IBCLC exam. The 2012 exam requirements should not be an issue for a nurse to meet, they are requiring more classes then previously required. The reason being that non-medical professionals that were sitting for the exam where often ill prepared. Even though I have been an RN for 8 years, I went through a different pathway to get my clinical hours for the exam. I have been a LLL Leader for years and also work for WIC running their peer counselor program, I used my years with LLL to qualify with IBCLC.

I have been out of nursing for exactly 7 years now. I recently accepted a job at the health dept, not a bad salary either considering.

I stumbled across this thread a while back, read it, explored options and now am throughly confused, LOL. Background on me, I have an ADN, got my RN 5 years ago, worked for about 7 months or so and then had a special needs child that I've been at home with ever since. I would love to get my BSN but I do not meet the working for 1 year requirement. I find that many programs have so many clinical hours that are just not possible with my daughters (my 2nd came with her own set of health issues). I actually had enrolled at one time with a program in FL, (exhausted and spacing the name at the moment), but found all the courses required to be very daunting, and now I'm ready to try again. Any suggestions? TIA