Abstract
This issue of Workplace Health & Safety contains a Continuing Nursing Education Module on “A Review of Worksite Lactation Accommodations: Occupational Health Professionals Can Assure Success” 1.0 contact hour of continuing nursing education credit will be awarded by AAOHN upon successful completion of the posttest and evaluation.
A certificate will be awarded when the following requirements are met by the participant: (1) Participant logs on to the AAOHN LMS website at www.aaohn.org/education/online-learning-center and enrolls in the course ($10 members; $15 non-members); (2) The completed posttest and course evaluation are entered online at at http://www.aaohn.org by January 2019;(3) A score of 75% (6 correct answers) is achieved by the participant.
Upon completion of this lesson, the occupational health nurse will be able to:
Describe evidence-based accommodations and strategies associated with extended breast feeding
The American Association of Occupational Health Nurses, Inc. is an Approved Provider of continuing nursing education by the American Association of Occupational Health Nurses, Inc., an accredited approver by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation.
The American Association of Occupational Health Nurses, Inc. is additionally approved as a CNE provider by the California Board of Registered Nursing (#CEP9283).
Contact hours received for successful completion of the posttest and evaluation may be used for relicensure, certification, and re-certification.
The authors’ experiments to promote breastfeeding in the workplace A cross-sectional study of breastfeeding success in a large company A cohort study of employees’ satisfaction with their company’s Corporate Lactation Program (CLP) A review of scientific literature describing research done on workplace lactation accommodations and their association with breastfeeding duration
Parents of breastfed infants have half as many 1-day absences as parents of formula-fed infants. Employees with breastfed infants typically use fewer insurance benefits for their infants. Employee retention is higher among companies with CLPs All of the above
Are not entitled to express breastmilk at work Are eligible for lactation breaks for up to one year after the birth of their child Must request and be granted permission by their employer to express breastmilk outside of their allotted lunch time Have fewer options for expressing milk at work compared to salaried employees
Were excluded if they focused on the association between maternity leave and full- or part-time work status and breastfeeding duration Were included only if they were published after the implementation of federal CLP requirements Included descriptions of the development of workplace breastfeeding assessment tools Included few international articles on the topic
All found statistically significant associations between policy and continued BF All found no statistically significant association between policy and continued BF Had differing results Had significant results when state law was addressed as a confounding variable
Promoting current best practices Gathering feedback on accommodations Monitoring the condition of physical facilities used for expressing breast milk All of the above
Provide education to all employees about the benefits of BF Wait until Human Resources asks them to serve as a liaison between employees and their managers when BF results in conflict Wait for the plant/site manager to request comprehensive workplace lactation policies Defer to managers in Human Resources or Facilities all issues related to BF
If well-designed space is provided for lactation breaks, duration of BF will be longer. Similar studies done on different populations may show different results. The key to successful BF is supportive colleagues/management. A worksite BF policy will ensure at least 6 months of BF