Child Life Specialist Job Description
Child life specialist
provides parent education on child development, support family bonds, and utilize family strengths in the care of a child.
Child Life Specialist Duties & Responsibilities
To write an effective child life specialist job description, begin by listing detailed duties, responsibilities and expectations. We have included child life specialist job description templates that you can modify and use.
Sample responsibilities for this position include:
The Child Life Specialist focuses on the psychosocial development of children, provides emotional support and developmentally appropriate information to increase their understanding and coping with medical procedures, diagnosis, pain management and bereavement
Professional child life certification through the Child Life Professional Certification Examination
Initiate and maintain supportive professional relationships with patients and their families that assist the families in understanding the developmental and emotional needs of their hospitalized child
Provides developmental stimulation, therapeutic play and activities, age-appropriate education and preparation for medical procedures, and support to patients and family members
The Child Life Specialist is a professional in pediatric healthcare who works with children and families to help minimize stress/anxiety and maximize positive coping throughout the hospital stay
The Specialist also addresses the needs of siblings or other children affected by a child’s illness/diagnosis
Serve as a resource on child development issues
Uses developmentally appropriate and medically accurate information to prepare children and families for diagnostic and treatment procedures
Assists parents in identifying ways to parent their infant while in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, thereby increasing their confidence and skills through education
Assists parents in incorporating siblings into the infant’s plan of care
Child Life Specialist Qualifications
Qualifications for a job description may include education, certification, and experience.
Licensing or Certifications for Child Life Specialist
List any licenses or certifications required by the position: BLS, CPR, AHA, AED, CCLS, CNA
Education for Child Life Specialist
Typically a job would require a certain level of education.
Employers hiring for the child life specialist job most commonly would prefer for their future employee to have a relevant degree such as Bachelor's and Master's Degree in Child Life, Child Development, Education, Psychology, Early Childhood Education, Family Studies, Human Development, Therapy, Health Care, Child and Family Studies
Skills for Child Life Specialist
Desired skills for child life specialist include:
Adolescent growth and development
Child
Infant
Pediatric age-appropriate treatment and practice
Procedures
Child development
Child development and behavior
Cultural and family systems
Disease/injury
Healthcare stressors
Desired experience for child life specialist includes:
Or a closely related field
Bachelors or masters degree that will enable them to sit for the certification exam or has met the educational requirements to sit for the exam
Must have Child Life Certification completed within 6 months of hire or transfer date
Must maintain current AHA CPR for Healthcare Providers Certification
Must have volunteer/work experience with well children, youth and families
Must have volunteer/work experience with children, youth and families experiencing stressful situations, healthcare and/or health issues
Child Life Specialist Examples
1
Child Life Specialist Job Description
Job Description Example
Our company is looking to fill the role of child life specialist. To join our growing team, please review the list of responsibilities and qualifications.
Responsibilities for child life specialist
- Utilizes knowledge and resources to assess, plan and prioritize appropriate child life and interdisciplinary interventions
- Coordinate, plan, implement, and evaluate comprehensive therapeutic and educational programs with the emphasis on the Pediatric patients’ and families' positive adjustment to hospitalization
- Provide interventions to circumvent the negative psychological impact of hospitalization and illness
- Work with all pediatric age patients to facilitate their socialization and positive adjustment to the hospital environment by promoting age appropriate activities to assure continued growth and development
- Prepare pediatric patients for the necessary medical interventions through play and/or discussion and encourage the use of coping skills during stressful medical encounters
- Foster the patient's self-expression, autonomy, sense of mastery and positive self-esteem
- Assess the patient’s fears and anxieties regarding hospitalization, using formal and informal assessment techniques that foster appropriate coping mechanisms to allow for a healthy, constructive adaptation to stressful experiences
- Create a therapeutic plan for patients that incorporates developmentally appropriate intervention and play activities for the bedside and in the playroom
- Document patient observations and makes recommendations for play intervention
- Educate Medical Imaging, Laboratory, Respiratory Care, and other ancillary departments on ways to interact with patients and their families
Qualifications for child life specialist
- Previous work experience with healthy infants, children and adolescents, , working knowledge of children and/or adolescents under stress
- 2 years experience in hospital/clinical setting required
- Ability to perform work duties independent of other Child Life Specialists
- Demonstrates critical thinking and problem solving abilities in order to resolve complex clinical systems and personnel problems and issues
- Knowledge of quality improvement methods and techniques
- Professional child life experience in a hospital environment strongly preferred
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Child Life Specialist Job Description
Job Description Example
Our growing company is hiring for a child life specialist. To join our growing team, please review the list of responsibilities and qualifications.
Responsibilities for child life specialist
- Provide developmentally appropriate preparation for planned medical procedures and interventions
- Document child lift activities and intervenions
- Train and supervise child life volunteers
- Content expert for bereavement
- Accurately assesses, prioritizes, and documents pediatric patient and family care
- Develops, implements, and evaluates effective pediatric patient and family centered health care plans
- Provides developmentally-appropriate education, psychological procedural preparation, coping support, comfort management, and play opportunities, to pediatric patients and families
- Utilizes play and self-expressive activities as primary resources to minimize the stress and anxiety patients and families can encounter in a hospital environment
- Facilitates a variety of play interventions which promote self-healing, self-expression, understanding and mastery
- Provide emotional and social support to patients and their families by conducting educational and recreational programs that minimize the psychological trauma for hospitalized infants, children, and adolescents
Qualifications for child life specialist
- Plan and provide emotionally and developmentally appropriate experiences to promote effective coping with health care and continued cognitive and emotional growth
- Enhance quality of patient care through participation, documentation and communication with other members of the health care team
- Serve as a resource and advocate on child development issues
- Bachelor´s Degree in one of the following specialties
- A Bachelors Degree in Child Development or related field
- Completion of an accredited Child Life internship
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Child Life Specialist Job Description
Job Description Example
Our innovative and growing company is searching for experienced candidates for the position of child life specialist. If you are looking for an exciting place to work, please take a look at the list of qualifications below.
Responsibilities for child life specialist
- Plan and provide age and developmentally appropriate experience to ensure continued cognitive and emotional growth
- Add to quality of patient care through observation, documentation, and communication with other members of the healthcare team
- Actively collaborate with multidisciplinary team to advocate for patient and family needs
- Demonstrate a commitment to family-centered care
- Provides information/effective treatment strategies and support to families while considering the lifelong implications for various diagnoses of patients seen within the department
- Completes timely documentation as required by Therapeutic Services department policy, JCAHO and CARF standards
- Attends inservices/continuing education
- Plans, organizes, and implements clinical programs for a pediatric inpatient unit and Center for Children
- Assesses/re-assesses each childs developmental level and creates treatment plans compatible with medical and psychosocial needs, interests, and capabilities through interviews and observations of patients in collaboration with other disciplines
- Provides age appropriate therapeutic interventions assessment in order to promote self-healing, self-expression, understanding and mastery
Qualifications for child life specialist
- Knowledge and understanding of growth and development theories of play, family dynamics, and development assessment
- Bachelor's degree from an accredited institution (degree will be verified)
- Carrying, Hearing/Listening, Lifting, Manual Dexterity, Pushing/Pulling, Seeing, Speaking, Squatting/Kneeling, Standing, Walking
- Bachelor's degree in related field of study such allowing for credentialing as a Certified Child Life Specialist
- A minimum of 1 year experience in the field preferred
- Minimum of three (3) to five (5) years' experience required
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Child Life Specialist Job Description
Job Description Example
Our company is growing rapidly and is looking for a child life specialist. Please review the list of responsibilities and qualifications. While this is our ideal list, we will consider candidates that do not necessarily have all of the qualifications, but have sufficient experience and talent.
Responsibilities for child life specialist
- Facilitates clinical supervision groups for child life staff
- Coordinates specific programs and projects for the child life department as assigned
- Possess a BA/BS, MA/MS in Child Life or a healthcare related field preferred
- 1 year hospital based child life experience preferred
- Incorporates the family when appropriate in order to facilitate the patients medical care and healing
- Communicates effectively with other professionals, students, patients, and staff by participating in meetings/committees and preparing/updating required reports
- Ensures the safety of patients during special events, outings, and all recreational activities within the hospital
- Assists with the recruitment, training, and functional supervision of students, aides and volunteers
- Participates in the planning and conducting of seminars, symposiums, and educational endeavors sponsored by the department
- Assists with ordering and maintenance of stores equipment and supplies
Qualifications for child life specialist
- Must have completed Child Life Internship, 2 years previous experience working with hospitalized and healthy children is preferred
- Professional Child Life Certification is required
- Child Life Internship
- Certified Child Life Specialist, by exam is required
- CPR - BLS certification is required within 60 days of hire
- Child Life Professional Certification or ability to obtain within 6-12 months
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Child Life Specialist Job Description
Job Description Example
Our innovative and growing company is looking to fill the role of child life specialist. We appreciate you taking the time to review the list of qualifications and to apply for the position. If you don’t fill all of the qualifications, you may still be considered depending on your level of experience.
Responsibilities for child life specialist
- Responsible for providing educational experiences for Child Life students, and completing other duties as assigned
- Assumes other duties as required by the Supervisor
- Advocate for children and family’s needs within the hospital
- Respond to consults with other health team members on patient and family needs
- Plan and coordinate special events, programs and guests
- Provide in-service and educational presentations as appropriate
- Provides assessments, interventions and therapeutic techniques from infancy to adolescents
- Shares responsibility for department-wide direct services
- Promotes Family Centered Care initiatives
- Assists in providing the SafERteens Intervention to identified 14-18 year olds triaged in the Hurley ED
Qualifications for child life specialist
- Bachelor's Degree in Child Life or related field
- Current Child Life Specialist (CCLS) certification
- Current Basic Life Support (BLS) certification for Healthcare Providers from the American Heart Association, or must obtain BLS within 3 months of employment, and maintain BLS certification annually
- Substantial work Experience as a CCLS in a NICU or ICU setting
- CPR Certification (Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation) within 6 month of employment
- Completion of a 480 hour Child Life Internship