Re: Certification--a new concept. Discuss.

[Dick Margulis <margulisd -at- comcast -dot- net>]

Gene,

First, FYI, your email address is bouncing.

Second, if you go back to my original post, the idea is to evolve 
something organically that eventually makes inroads into the 
consciousness of hiring managers (maybe not HR folks--ever--but doc 
managers who themselves became certified some years previous, for example).

Here's the model that led to this discussion at dinner yesterday: My 
wife gets to put "IBCLC" after her name. That means she is an 
international board-certified lactation consultant. Even after 25 years 
of existence of that particular credential, it does not carry a lot of 
weight with hospitals or universities and most healthcare professionals 
are not familiar with it. However--and this is the point Tina made--it 
doesn't stand alone. In her case it comes _after_ "MD, FAAP," both of 
which are more broadly familiar in the medical community. In the case of 
the majority of IBCLCs, it comes after "RN" or "APRN" or some other 
relatively high-status qualifier. So it is an adjunct credential. Here 
is a doctor. And, oh, by the way, she also knows a lot about lactation 
(something that isn't taught in medical school). Or here is a registered 
nurse, and, oh, by the way, she also knows a lot about lactation.

Meanwhile, people who have earned the IBCLC designation have gone on to 
organize a number of international conferences that are held each year 
for people at all levels, from rank-and-file La Leche League members to 
medical researchers. The people who attend these conferences give 
appropriate credence to speakers who are IBCLCs and they are in many 
cases motivated to study and sit for the exam themselves. In the last 
few years, MDs who are IBCLCs as well have formed a new organization, 
the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine, which has elected fellows (just 
like any other medical academy does), and Tina gets to put FABM after 
her name, as well--an abbreviation that, maybe another twenty years 
hence, will be recognized by the average pediatrician or gynecologist 
scanning a journal article's authors.

What's my point? My point is that it takes time to achieve credibility. 
You can't attain it instantly, no matter how rigorously you define the 
criteria for a certificate.

Dick

Gene Kim-Eng wrote: