Child Life Assistant

Intermountain Health • Lehi, UT

11h • Onsite

About The Position

The Child Life Assistant interacts directly with pediatric patients, families, and other healthcare team members and facilitates age-appropriate activities to help make the healthcare experience easier for patients and families. Under the direction of a child life specialist, the child life assistant provides activities in a play setting that reduces patient and family distress, increases effective patient and family coping, fosters patient independence, and promotes optimum development. This role is designed as a career path toward other child development roles and most Child Life Assistants are working towards child life certification through the Association of Child Life Professionals while earning a degree and certifications. This position will be supporting the in-patient playroom and teen room. Oversight of playroom programming, events, and volunteers alongside a certified child life specialist.

Requirements

• Demonstrated experience working with healthy children or children in a medical or hospital setting
• Knowledge of child development
• Computer experience in word processing, spreadsheets, and databases or similar applications
• Able to work independently and be organized
• Ability to work in a stressful environment related to patient needs including acute, chronic, and complex disease, and grief and bereavement
• Maintains appropriate boundaries with patients and families
• Relationship building
• Supervision
• Teamwork
• Critical thinking
• Communication
• Interpersonal skills
• Patience
• Decisiveness
• Emotional intelligence
• Creativity
• Frequent interactions with patient care providers, patients, and visitors that require employee to verbally communicate as well as hear and understand spoken information, alarms, needs, and assess issues quickly and accurately, particularly during emergency situations to maintain safety
• Ongoing need for employee to see and read information, documents, monitors, identify equipment and supplies, and be able to assess customer needs.
• Manual dexterity of hands and fingers to manipulate complex and delicate equipment with precision and accuracy. This includes frequent computer use for typing, accessing needed information, etc.
• Expected to lift and utilize full range of movement to transfer patients. Will also bend to retrieve, lift, and carry supplies and equipment. Typically includes items of varying weights, up to and including heavy items.

Nice To Haves

• Associate or bachelor’s degree
• Working towards child life certification through the Association of Child Life Professionals
• Work experience as a child life assistant.
• Completion of child life pre-internship/practicum
• Completion of a 600-hour child life internship.
• Spanish speaking

Responsibilities

• Accurately assesses and prioritizes developmental needs of the pediatric patient and family and updates child life specialist when patient needs are outside scope of practice.
• Develops, implements, advertises, and evaluates developmentally appropriate play/recreational activities and directs parents, students, and volunteers in providing developmentally appropriate toys to patients and families in play space.
• Screens and transports patients to play areas, completes appropriate check-in guidelines and policies to ensure child safety and assists in coordinating special events, holidays, and special visitors.
• Maintains a clean, safe environment in accordance with infection prevention and safety standards.
• Monitors and provides a supportive child-friendly environment in play spaces; supervises, orients, and trains students and volunteers as needed.
• Assists with ordering, receiving, organizing, and distributing supplies.
• Supervises and independently leads the facility “Kids Clubhouse,” coordinating the work of the volunteers in those spaces.

Benefits

• Generous benefits package that covers a wide range of programs to foster a sustainable culture of wellness that encompasses living healthy, happy, secure, connected, and engaged.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Entry Level
• Education Level: Associate degree