Job Description

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.

Position Responsibilities

Clinical Judgment:

• 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 mother’s and neonates.
• Adhere to the International Lactation Consultant’s Association (ILCA) Standards of Practice.

Facilitator of Learning:

• 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.

Collaboration:

• 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.

Response to Diversity:

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

Clinical Inquiry:

• 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 incorporates these finding into nursing practices for patient care.
• Pursue continuing education relevant to LC practice.

Systems Thinking:

• 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; anticipates needs of the mother-baby dyad as they move through the healthcare system; utilizes untapped and alternative resources as necessary.

Advocacy/Moral Agency:

• Work on behalf of the patient, family, and community; advocates from the patient/family perspective.
• Support colleagues in ethical and clinical issues, achieved mutuality within patient/professional relationships.
• Adhere to the International Board of Lactation Consultant Examiners (BLCE) Code of Ethics for International Board-Certified Lactation Consultants.

Caring Practices:

• Recognize and tailor caring practices to the individuality of patient and family; has astute awareness and anticipates mother –baby dyad changes and needs; follow the families lead; promote safety throughout mother and baby’s transition along the health-care continuum.

Position Requirements

• Graduate of accredited school of nursing, Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) required.
• Minimum one year experience required; inpatient lactation consultations preferred.
• Current Registered Nurse license in the State of Florida.
• Obtain CLC within 6 months of employment and Certified as an International Board-Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) through the IBLCE Within in year of employment.
• American Heart Association BLS, NRP Healthcare Provider Course Completion required upon hire.
• STABLE Course required and maintained

Nemours Children's Health is an internationally recognized pediatric health system serving more than 1.7 million patient encounters each year. We deliver care across six states through two freestanding children’s hospitals — Nemours Children's Hospital, Delaware and Nemours Children's Hospital, Florida — along with a network of more than 80 primary, urgent, and specialty care practices and more than 40 hospital partnerships.

Backed by the Nemours Foundation and Alfred I. duPont Trust, our $1.7B nonprofit system is dedicated to improving children's health through clinical care, research, education, advocacy, and prevention. Our Whole Child Health approach focuses equally on prevention and treatment, partnering with communities to help every child thrive.

Inclusion and belonging guide our strategy and growth. We are committed to culturally relevant care, reducing health disparities, and fostering an environment where every associate, patient, and family feels supported and valued.

Learn more at Nemours.org