Career

A What Specialist?

by taylorbkeightley

Guess what month it is?!  CHILD LIFE month!! So I figured the best way to enter into Child Life month is to share with you all something I am very passionate about.

When people ask me, “What do you do?” I tell them “I am a Child Life Specialist…” In response, they commonly say, “Oh cool!” following with “What is that?!” I then try and share the most condensed description of my job because it’s a struggle to explain all that I do in a 40 hour week. Simply put, there are many roles that I fulfill, but a Certified Child Life Specialist (CCLS) is a health care professional that works in a pediatric environment providing support for children and families.  We typically work in a multi-disciplinary team that consists of doctors, nurses, social workers, physical therapists, occupational therapists, etc.

Here is a list of some of the things that my colleagues and I do as child life specialists:

  1. Prepare patients for pending procedures or surgeries and promote positive coping while reducing fear and anxiety. Not only do we prepare them for procedures and surgeries, but we help them learn about their diagnosis.
  2. We provide opportunities for medical play, which help children gain mastery over their medical experience.
  3. Provide sibling support and explain it in a way that the patient’s brother/sister may understand the reason their sibling is in the hospital.  We may talk about what they may see in the patient’s room, explain their siblings diagnosis, etc.
  4. We provide support to children that are involved in traumas.  This may look like supporting a child at bedside as the medical team is completing their assessment, supporting the family or siblings, or providing emotional support during a crisis.
  5. We organize special events to try and provide a fun environment that makes the hospital less of a scary place.
  6. Teach patients (& sometimes siblings) positive coping skills in painful and/or invasive procedures with pre/post-procedural support, diversion, guided imagery, or biofeedback. We can also provide support during the actual procedures as well.
  7. Provide an environment that children can feel like children and play without any medical interventions.
  8. Provide support for a family during an end-of-life situation or bereavement of a patient.  We can help siblings understand the finality of death, how to cope with it, and then help the family complete memory making after the patient has passed.
  9. After a child has been out of school for a long time due to treatment or hospitalization, we are able to help patients reintegrate into the school system by doing school visits at their school.
  10. We support other social services such as music therapy, art therapy, K9 therapy, etc.

Like I’ve said, we have so many different roles, but I do have to say we are NOT:

  • babysitters
  • bubble lady/person
  • toy lady/person
  • entertainers
  • tutors
  • iPad lady/person

…we bring SO much more than that to our jobs.

Also, I get so many questions on “how did you become a child life specialist?”  And I just want to start off by saying that it isn’t one of those jobs you learn on the job.  This job requires a lot of studying and a lot of experience!  First, you have to earn a Bachelor’s degree in some sort of related field.  I earned mine from University of Washington (Go Huskies!) in Early Childhood & Family Studies (ECFS).  You also need to have some sort of experience with healthy and sick kids (hospitals usually prefer a variety of experience) before you start applying to practicums.  A practicum is basically like a job shadow for 120 supervised hours under a CCLS.  Then you need to get an internship which is highly competitive.  Most hospitals only have 1-2 spots per quarter/semester and they can receive anywhere from 50-90 applicants if not more depending on the facility.  Internships are very exhausting as they are full-time, unpaid, and 600 hours.  Upon completion, you then have to study for a National boards exam with the Association of Child Life Professionals (ACLP).

Lastly, these are a few things that you can do to support Child Life:

  • Donate NEW & UNOPENED toys and games to your local children’s hospital
  • Donate financially to your local children’s hospital since most Child Life departments are philanthropically funded
  • Volunteer!  We utilize volunteers to help run the playrooms, clean toys, deliver toys, play with patients at bedside, etc.

I hope you learned something about child life! 🙂

xoxo,

T