Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

This is the third and final term of clinical experience for students completing the Lactation Consultant Certificate. Provides on-site clinical experience education in inpatient, outpatient or community settings under the direct supervision of facility personnel. Includes exposure to working conditions and skills needed when dealing with more complex maternal and pediatric breastfeeding challenges. Participants will have the opportunity to obtain the remaining hours of on-site clinical experience needed for IBLCE certification eligibility. The IBLCE Exam Blueprint is a guide for the curriculum utilized in this course. Students registering for this course will also need to register for LEC 277, which is a hybrid course that includes some distance learning classes and some in-person classes.

Upon successful completion, students should be able to:

1. Utilize effective communication, counseling, and adult education skills in order to promote, protect, and support breastfeeding.
2. Perform a comprehensive maternal, child and feeding assessment related to lactation.
3. Apply critical thinking and problem solving-skills to evaluate potential orexisting challenges and factors when dealing with more complex maternal and pediatric challenges.
4. Assist and support the mother to develop, implement and evaluate an appropriate and achievable breastfeeding plan using evidence-based information.
5. Abide by professional ethics and standards, practicing within the framework defined by the IBLCE Code of Professional Conduct for IBCLCs.
6. Facilitate the development of policies that protect, promote and support breastfeeding, and act as advocates for breastfeeding as the child-feeding norm using evidence-based information.

Course learning activities will include readings, clinical experience, group discussion, quizzes, reflective writing, case studies and observations.

Completion of a minimum of 300 hrs of clinical experience
On-site preceptor clinical evaluations
Multiple choice tests
Written assignments
Course activities and discussion

Themes
Evidence-based lactation practices
Concepts
Observation
Communication
Family-centered care
Adult education
Collaboration
Counseling
Clinical assessment
Communicable diseases
Problem-solving
Professional ethics
Issues
Processing students own personal or familial experience of breastfeeding
Sharing personal or familial experience of breastfeeding
Recognizing the importance of basing lactation practice on evidence-informed
information
Cultural Sensitivity
Skills

• Provide evidence-informed education through various means including the development of educational materials, curriculum development and multimedia campaigns about breastfeeding and human lactation for families, health professionals and the community
• Assist families with decisions regarding feeding their children by providing evidence-informed information that is free of conflicts of interest
• Set priorities in the provision of care with attention to client needs and available resources
• Delegate to and evaluate others who provide lactation care ensuring that the task is within the scope of their practice
• Conduct a comprehensive clinical assessment- including history taking, physical exam and observation of breastfeeding
• Facilitate breastfeeding and/or the provision of human milk for the medically fragile and physically compromised child
• Demonstrate knowledge of human milk banking including donor screening, safe processing of human milk, how to obtain donor milk, and ethical distribution of donor milk
• Assist and support the mother and family to identify strategies to cope with peripartum mood disorders and access community resources
• Provide evidence-informed information regarding complementary therapies during lactation and their impact on mother’s milk production and the effect on her child
• Document care provided through completion of written or electronic medical records, and written assessments when required with the family’s permission
• Critique and evaluate indications, contraindications and use of techniques, appliances and devices which support breastfeeding or may be harmful to continued breastfeeding including alternative feeding methods
• Demonstrate the ability to appropriately handle patient phone calls, including providing phone advice, triage and referral
• Work collaboratively and interdependently with other members of the health care team
• Respect the privacy, dignity and confidentiality of families except where the reporting of a danger to parent or child is specifically required by law
• Demonstrate knowledge of the need to retain documentation of client contacts and care provided for the time specified by the local jurisdiction
• Obtain continuing education to enhance skills and maintain her/his IBCLC certification
• Use an understanding of breastfeeding–related equipment, including the potential disadvantages or risks in order to demonstrate appropriate use.