Allison T

Just mentioning that it is absolutely not necessary to be a nurse to become an IBCLC. IBCLCs also come from PT, SLP, OT, MD/DO, social work, and many other backgrounds.

Hi Claralee, I racked my brain and found I knew 3 CNMs who attended Jefferson University. All 3 liked it a lot. They all said it's a program where you know your faculty and that was important to them. I worked with 2 of them clinically and to m...

I could not agree more! The media perpetuate this notion of injecting the vaccine up high, too close to the shoulder. Ouch. Both times I got the COVID vaccine, the person injected it much too high. It felt like it hit bone. I was worried it had not g...

I am giving COVID vaccines, too. I hadn't given deltoid injections in a while: I am usually injecting a larger volume (>1 mL), so I favor the dorsal gluteal or ventral gluteal sites. I was required to take the CDC website training on giving the va...

There are actually a number of birth centers that employ lactation consultants (IBCLCs). They tend to be the larger birth centers. For example, Women's Birth and Wellness Center in Chapel Hill, NC, and the Midwife Center for Birth and Women's Health ...

I'm sorry I didn't see these replies months ago. I love the discussion. I do want to say that however much CNMs with L & D experience who work in busy, medicalized practices may feel that their L & D experience was helpful (and I am one of th...

I didn't go to Jefferson (which used to be called Philadelphia Midwifery Institute) but I have friends who did. I'm a CNM who went to a different school.

Well, hello. I am a certified nurse-midwife who loves talking about midwifery. I'm pretty active in midwifery organizations and will try to direct you to resources and answer questions. I'm sorry the midwife at your local hospital wasn't open to netw...

I too was the pioneering CNM at a hospital. I was on call virtually 24/7. My plan was to gradually persuade management to hire another CNM. I did ultimately succeed with that. However, our service got shut down by the CEO a short time after we hired ...

Oh, I just answered this in the Georgetown thread...

Re Georgetown and dual specialty, I would highly recommend not doing CNM with WHNP. The WHNP doesn't increase your scope of practice. Do an FNP. Even if you think you only want to see women now as a future CNM, I can guarantee there will come a time ...

In most states, it would not be worth your while to be both a CNM and a WHNP. Everything that a WHNP does is within a CNM's scope of practice. The reverse is not true. If you want to be an NP in addition to being a CNM, consider being an FNP, etc.,...

Hello. Your plans and questions sound good. Note that since you are already a nurse, you would become a CNM, not a CM. The certified midwife (CM) path requires a bachelor's degree in a non-nursing field, and then a program for a master's degree. Only...

I agree about e-mail! I get a fair amount of people wanting to e-mail me to ask about being a CNM. I'm definitely willing to meet people face to face if they are serious about it after several rounds of e-mails. I did have one recently who ended up w...

Sadly, on social media, I sometimes see practitioners who are advanced practice nurses (such as nurse practitioners) being called "doctor," and not correcting the person who posted it. Like "You are the best doctor." There's also an issue with some d...

I agree with the above comment, but in many areas, there simply are not any or many full-scope CNM positions. So in that case, if you are faced with a choice between a job that doesn't use your CNM skills at all, or one that uses part of your CNM ski...

I did check with the agency, thanks! And thanks to JenLPN as well. The Maryland Board of Nurses has been extremely UNhelpful, to the point of not answering phone messages or e-mails. They provide (on their website www.mbon.org) a long list of people...

Certified Medication Technician: Maryland?? I am looking for information on how an RN can get trained to teach people to become CMTs in Maryland, and information on CMT trainers who can teach CMTs to work in the residential summer camp setting in Ma...

I recommend joining the Association of Camp Nurses (ACN) (www.acn.org) which is a very cost-effective way to learn a great deal about camp nursing. See if the camp will pay for the membership! It benefits them to have you practicing as well as you po...

That sounds like a really tough position to be in, and it sounds like you made the right decision for your family. To me, the idea that each woman "has to" get her own midwife for labor is fostering the concept of "cult of personality." By acting as...

I want to say that for anyone involved in camp nursing, a very worthwhile investment is a membership in the Association of Camp Nurses. This gives you a super-helpful quarterly bulletin (newsletter), and access to a members-only forum filled with ded...

A couple of issues here. Health teaching should be evidence based. What we "think" or "believe" does not need to enter into it; there is plenty of research to back us up. No nurse who works dialysis needs to give her opinion of appropriate fluid inta...

I am a former NICU RN/current lactation consultant who covers NICU. Many RNs at the hospital where I work use infant formula even in breastfed babies. For example, they squirt infant formula onto the mother's nipple to "entice" the baby to latch on. ...

I'm answering this from the standpoint of someone whose only OR experience has been circulating as an L & D nurse for cesarean births and a few other surgeries. But I want to address the "lose my skills" question. We nurses seem to use that phras...

That is a beautiful description. All of us nurses have so much potential to give, and to receive, from our patients and our coworkers.