Sending Reports: What’s in it for IBCLCs?

• Duration: 60 Mins
• Credits: 1 CERP, 1 L-CERP
• Handout: Yes

Abstract:

Most lactation professionals love client interactions, but only send reports to health care providers out of a sense of duty. But writing and sending reports to our client’s health care providers can be more just an administrative task. Yes, it complies with IBLCE’s Code of Ethics to “Principle 4: Report accurately and completely to other members of the healthcare team” but it can also increase collaboration, improve client outcomes, and grow your practice.
This presentation seeks to reframe the process of writing and sending reports from a dreaded task to a clinical, ethical, and holistic way of supporting our clients while positively positioning ourselves as allied health professionals. Beyond the ethics (yes or no) and practicalities ("S.O.A.P." or not), a report to a health care provider is a source of communication about the consultation as well as marketing about your clinical skill, role in the client’s lactation experience, and lactation practice. With a combination of the why and how, this presentation outlines the ways in which reports to health care providers can be beneficial to the client, the health care provider, and the IBCLC, as well as devoting some time to specific strategies that lactation consultants can implement to streamline the process of sending reports so that we can get to the next client.

Learning Objectives: