Child Life Mission Statement

During the last three years, I have completed 488 hours in two child life departments interacting with children and families in the hospital setting. At the same time, I kept the quality of my academic standing high (GPA 4.0 at Ozarks Technical Community College and GPA 3.88 at Missouri State University). I am currently a child life practicum student at CoxHealth Dee Ann White Women’s and Children’s Hospital. My duties include planning and implementing developmentally appropriate and therapeutic activities, such as origami, scavenger hunts, and medical play to promote physical, cognitive, social, and emotional development for patients. I can independently interact with and introduce child life services to patients and families in Pediatrics

All members of the staff must act as professionals while at work, especially with young children. The administrative and teaching staff must work together to ensure their practices are developmentally appropriate, and share new and/or creative ideas with one another. It is also the responsibility of a teacher to establish an open, trusting relationship with the parents of each children in their care. Thus, parents can freely communicate their thoughts, concerns, and/or suggestions about their child or the program. Parent satisfaction is something that every child care or development center should strive for.

As an undergraduate, I was able to gain a year and a half of clinician experience. Unlike most undergraduate colleges, I was given the incredible opportunity to have hands on experience with children varying in ages and in disorders. In my clinical experience, I was taught and guided on how to create long-term therapy goals, write

As I begin my fifth year of working as a nurse practitioner in a leading children’s hospital, I am certain the pediatric acute care setting is where I will continue my career of service to children and their families. Although I hold a masters degree in nursing and have been a primary care certified pediatric nurse practitioner for many years, I wish to expand my knowledge of pediatric nursing to encompass the unique and challenging aspects of pediatric acute care.

I want to become a Child Life specialist in the future. Child life specialists are trained professionals with knowledge in helping children and their families overcome some of life’s challenging and stressful events. Child life specialist have knowledge in child development and family systems, child life specialists promote effective coping through play, preparation, education, and self-expression activities(Child Life Council). They provide emotional and psychosocial support for children and families in a health care setting based on the individuals needs. Because they understand that a child’s wellbeing depends on the support of the family, child life specialists provide information, support and guidance to parents, siblings, and other family

The Children’s Hospital of Central California (CHCC) is one of the nation’s largest pediatric hospitals; CCHC not only provides great quality healthcare for pediatrics but also caters and cares for children from pre-birth all the way until their young adulthood stage of life. CHCC is a nonprofit healthcare network that specializes in medical and surgical services to help care for common to rare health conditions. Children’s Hospital provides healthcare services in over forty different types medical services. Services can include from Intensive Care Unit (ICU), Emergency Room (ER) to Cardiology. The department that will be observed and discussed is the social services department

For the past 12 weeks, it has been a blessing to be with an organization such as the Methodist Home and witness it providing nourishment and life to its body and the body of Christ. Daily for over 100 years the Methodist Home has been helping children and families. As I reflect on my time at the Methodist Home, I am reminded of a passage where Jesus states “Let the children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these the kingdom of God belongs.” In adhering to Jesus’ command the Methodist Home zealously advocates for the best interest of the children it serves. I am amazed at how the Methodist Home, despite lack of funding and budgetary cuts, is able to utilize the legislative process, engage in rigorous employee and foster/adoptive

As my internship at Tufts Floating Hospital came to an end this week, I reflected on my internship as a whole. Although there were days that I did not look forward to going to the hospital, I always tried to go in with a smile, which clearly reflected in my supervisor’s evaluation. My entire internship was not exactly what I expected. I went in thinking that there would be a lot of busy work, but I did not think about the size of the hospital. Tufts Medical Center is smaller than Children’s Hospital, which is also located in Boston. This means that many more children end up at Children’s Hospital rather than Tufts Floating Hospital, thus creating slower working days. This internship allowed me to learn therapeutic skills for children, which

The mission statement for Arkansas Children’s Hospital is one that I have always loved. “We champion children by making them better today and healthier tomorrow.” If that doesn’t make your heart happy, I don’t know what will. Their goal is to uphold the highest standards of medical care professionalism. In other words, they strive to be the best they can be and hire that best physicians possible.

What I learned from this meeting is that there are many different areas in which a child life specialist does day to day. As I stated earlier in my description of a child life specialist, they do more than one thing each day. Child life specialist are a big part of the hospital. They can be used in many areas such as pre-op, oncology, emergency room, and out-patient clinics. This information helped me to see that I can get a job in more places than just a hospital. As well as I can apply to an internship in more places than just the three local hospitals in my area I had originally thought of before attending this meeting.

Provide a wide range of thoughtful and fundamental services to children and families during the critical phase of a medical crisis. We serve families referred by medical agencies by building a network of services and people who ease the burden of life’s day-to-day obligations with compassion and care (There With Care, 2005).

In the introduction of the article, the project designers from the Parenting Research Centre, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, and the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne, Australia explain the new program that they’ve created called the “Take A Breath” program or TAB. It focuses on parent interventions to help fix the way they adjust while their child is in the hospital. This program is designed with the same concept of acceptance commitment therapy or ACT that was developed by Hayes, Strosahi, and Wilson. The program strives to raise the psychological flexibility of the parents with children who have life threatening illnesses such as cancer, car accident related injuries, burns, or children in ICU. The creators of the program realize

My first opportunity to work with children was during my second year pediatrics rotation, where I grew to love the specialty. It gave me a chance to interact with age groups ranging from neonates to adolescents, each with their own unique set of conditions. I vividly remember an eight-year-old who was admitted to the pediatric service with congestive heart failure. During my first interview with her, she was very scared and shy. Upon further discussions with her mother, I realized that she associated my white lab coat with injections and pain. The next time I met the girl, I went without my white coat. She was more cheerful and it was easier to gather her problem history. I realized that earning a patient’s trust is the key and to do so, I must empathize with them and creatively address their concerns. This requires verbal as well as nonverbal listening skills and patience. Overall, it was a truly satisfying experience, to make her feel comfortable, understand her issues and provide her the care she needed.

Agency Description: Action for Healthy Kids vision is to keep every kid healthy, active, and successful in school. Their mission is to help school workers, families and communities make healthier eating choices, participate in fun physical activity, and provide healthier schools where kids can grow. Action for Healthy Kids believes that school action plans, healthy programs, and community-school partnerships will develop healthy kids everywhere.

According to the research of the American Academy of Pediatrics in their official Pediatric journal, one term defines a whole field of the relationship exchange between the child and his or her pediatrician. A “medical home” was once used to conclude all the medical information about a patient, but nowadays can be delineated a“ partnership approach with families to provide primary health care that is assessable, family centered, coordinated, comprehensive, continuous, compassionate, and culturally effective period” (Sia, et al.). With increasing healthcare cost, technology, survivorship, foundations, and specializations, this causes an abundant amount of attention focused