Activity Coordinator

Children's National Medical Center•Washington, DC

76d•Onsite

About The Position

The Activity Coordinator provides opportunities for children to gain a sense of mastery, through play and learning experiences. The Activity Coordinator is responsible for providing therapeutic and diversionary play activities to an assigned group of pediatric patients and/or siblings to promote normalization of the hospital environment, positive adaptation to the hospital and a family centered care focus. Requires excellent communication, group management and organizational skills. The Activity Coordinator will demonstrate a strong commitment to a team approach.

Requirements

Associate's Degree Child development or related field (Required)
1 year Job related experience working with children or two years of college education in child development or related field is required. (Required)
Knowledge of child and adolescent growth and development, high level of interpersonal communication skills, effective oral and written communication skills, ability to work independently and as a team member with proven knowledge of medical terminology.
Candidate must have experience working with individuals from diverse backgrounds and cultures.

Responsibilities

Introduces patient programming and supportive services to patients, parents, and siblings
Plans, facilitates and supervises group and spontaneous play opportunities for assigned patient care area(s)
Encourages socialization and peer interaction between patients and families by organizing and providing a monthly calendar of scheduled activities for play spaces
Supervise and/or monitor play activities for assigned patient care area(s)
Maintains play space as a "safe", welcoming and supportive environment by ensuring medical procedures/consults/meetings occur outside of area
Encourages caregiver involvement in play area activities for normalization and informs patients, families and health care team of available resources
Provides input to the Child Life Specialist about observed specific needs of individual children; determine when the needs of individual children should be attended to by child life specialists, nursing and/or medical professionals and outside the general scope of the activity coordinator role
Responsible for ongoing supervision and support to volunteers in playroom, play spaces or bedside
Delivers toys/activities to patient rooms that support adjustment to hospitalization, encourage play and promote normal growth and development as requested by Child Life Specialist, Nursing or self-referral
Provides one on one interaction with patients as determined by Child Life Specialist or self-referral
Provides opportunities for choice and encourages involvement in decision making
Recognizes and builds on strength of families by acknowledging and utilizing parent's knowledge of patient's abilities, interests and needs
Identifies patients for volunteer support and provides guidance to volunteers in the selection of age/developmentally appropriate activities
Engages and collaborates with hospital programs and ancillary services to enhance patient support as appropriate
Organizes play space to be a welcoming environment for patients and families
Inventories, restocks and maintains play space materials in collaboration with Child Life Specialist
Cleans toys/games/equipment daily in accordance with hospital toy washing policy
Completes required documentation of Toy Cleaning Log
Facilitates contact with EVS, Facilities and Bio-Med to ensure play space and equipment are well maintained
Adheres to hospital policy regarding visitors and siblings in play space
Safely assists patients to and from play space and special events
Reports concerns/safety incidents to Director of the department for follow up and documents safety concerns per department and hospital policy
Meet with Department Director for regular supervision, preparing agenda and discussing areas of concern
Respond to requests for services as stated in department standards
Participate in Child Life meetings as appropriate and in departmental staff meetings
Meet all departmental requirements for chart recording, statistics, and other professional documentation and submit documents in a timely manner
Participate in departmental performance improvement activities
Plan absences in collaboration with Child Life and Integrative Care team members
Participate in professional development activities
Participate in planning of community outreach and advocacy events
Anticipate and responds to customer needs; follows up until needs are met
Demonstrate collaborative and respectful behavior
Partner with all team members to achieve goals
Receptive to others' ideas and opinions
Contribute to a positive work environment
Demonstrate flexibility and willingness to change
Identify opportunities to improve clinical and administrative processes
Make appropriate decisions, using sound judgment
Use resources efficiently
Search for less costly ways of doing things
Speak up when team members appear to exhibit unsafe behavior or performance
Continuously validate and verify information needed for decision making or documentation
Stop in the face of uncertainty and takes time to resolve the situation
Demonstrate accurate, clear and timely verbal and written communication
Actively promote safety for patients, families, visitors and co-workers
Attend carefully to important details - practicing Stop, Think, Act and Review in order to self-check behavior and performance