RN - NICU Lactation Consultant

The Lactation Consultant (LC) is a certified registered nurse skilled in assessment, planning, implementation, and evaluation to assist the breastfeeding mother-baby dyad with feeding and help the mother to achieve her individual goals. The LC functions as a member of the multi-disciplinary health care team as a consultant, educator, and mentor to nurses, healthcare professionals, and patients and their families. The LC demonstrates behaviors that model the core values and mission statement for the organization.

• Provide advanced assessment and interpretation, implement nursing care plans and support, and evaluate outcomes for the breastfeeding population based on provider/nurse referrals for breastfeeding or pumping issues within the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and other clinical areas of the hospital that request lactation consultation.
• Initiate and receive referrals from physicians, nursing staff, and families.
• Use current lactation theories and research to develop evidence-based feeding plans that address individual feeding issues, such as nutritional requirements, while respecting the family's breastfeeding goals.
• Demonstrate the ability to assess/meet the psychosocial and developmental age-related needs of the specific population served.
• Participates in daily bedside rounds for appropriate patient population.
• Facilitate follow-up phone calls for recently discharged breastfeeding patients.
• Document teaching, plan of care, and progress in electronic record.
• Recommend breastfeeding equipment and devices when their use is appropriate to the lactating mother and her breastfeeding infant.
• Demonstrate knowledge of pharmaceuticals and the effects on lactation for postpartum mothers and neonates.
• Adhere to the International Lactation Consultant's Association Standards of Practice.

• Demonstrate clinical expertise while supporting the breastfeeding mother-baby dyad. Provides evidence-based education or teaching skills to direct care staff and families.
• Act as a role model and preceptor to communicate, implement, and support organizational objectives and standards as they relate to the nursing mother-baby dyad.
• Assist in the development and/or review of all literature relating to breastfeeding that is distributed to families in the hospital and related to their discharge to home.
• Plan, oversee, and coordinate family and staff breastfeeding education activities.
• Provide evidence-based competency education for healthcare associates.
• Identify the needs for and works with appropriate resources to develop education related to new technologies, procedures, equipment, and patient specific needs.
• Mentor nursing and LC students.
• Educate and collaborate with unit based CLC and assist in the maintenance of competencies.

• Focus on multidisciplinary team building while providing breastfeeding resources and support.
• Promote community outreach activities to share the benefits of breastfeeding.
• Confer regularly, when appropriate, with the relevant provider and nursing staff member on each patient's special needs, plans of care, and progress.
• Support and model procedures and policies of the hospital and standards of nursing care.
• Maintain awareness, and interact as needed, on any goals that may be set by the ILCA, Centers for Disease Control, and/or the State of Florida as they relate to breastfeeding and Maternal/Newborn health.

• Review alternative approaches and implements planned change to meet the breastfeeding mother's needs considering cultural, social, family, and system diversity.

• Individualize standards and guidelines for particular patient situations.
• Question and/or evaluate current practice based on patients' responses, review of literature, research, and education/learning.
• Maintain the knowledge and skills needed to address questions arising in practice and improve patient care.
• Participate in departmental and hospital programs for Quality Assessment and Improvement, identifying opportunities to improve services, making recommendations and implementing actions as appropriate and consistent with the goals of Nemours.
• Maintain data/reports on exclusively breast milk fed infants as per the Joint Commission Perinatal Care Core Measure Set.
• Disseminate research findings as they relate to lactation and incorporate these findings into nursing practices for patient care.
• Pursue continuing education relevant to LC practice.

• Develop, integrate, and apply a variety of strategies that are driven by the needs and strengths of the mother-baby dyad.
• Negotiate and navigate through the system on behalf of the patient and family; anticipate needs of the mother-baby dyad as they move through the healthcare system; utilize untapped and alternative resources as necessary.

• Work on behalf of the patient, family, and community; advocate from the patient/family perspective.
• Support colleagues in ethical and clinical issues,…