Child Life Specialist

Sutter Health•Fremont, CA

About The Position

The Child Life Specialist – Ambulatory Care, Education & Consultation works under the direction of Pediatrics Service Line Directors and/or service line clinician leadership and functions primarily as a consultant supporting ambulatory pediatric services. This position is responsible for developing, standardizing, and scaling child life practices across outpatient settings through consultation, education, and training rather than routine direct patient assignment. The role emphasizes creation of training and education toolkits using a “train-the-trainer” model, enabling multidisciplinary staff across multiple service lines to embed child life principles into everyday ambulatory care. The Child Life Specialist serves as a subject matter expert and consultant to clinicians, nursing, medical assistants, and operational leaders by providing hands-on demonstrations, coaching, and guidance related to developmentally appropriate communication, procedural preparation, coping strategies, positioning, distraction techniques, and behavior-reward approaches tailored to ambulatory workflows. Direct patient interaction may occur episodically and strategically for purposes of staff modeling, piloting new approaches, and supporting education and training initiatives. The primary responsibility of this role is consultative, educational, and programmatic in nature, with the goal of supporting teams to independently deliver child-centered care across ambulatory settings.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Child Life, Child Development, Psychology, or another area with all necessary coursework for Clinical Child Life Certification completed.
Successful completion of Child Life Internship that meets the Association of Child Life Professionals (ACLP) requirement of Clinical Child Life Certification.
Certified Child Life Specialist (CCLS) within 1 year.
Basic Life Support (BLS) Healthcare Provider certification.
5 years recent relevant experience.
Working knowledge of child growth and development, family dynamics, therapeutic play, developmental assessment, the learning process, group process and behavior management, the reactions of children and their families to illness and healthcare encounters, interventions to support coping, collaboration with other healthcare professionals, basic medical terminology and children's illnesses.
Ability to implement therapeutic play activities for individual children and groups.
Ability to apply knowledge of child growth and development and assess children's behaviors and needs.
Ability to utilize and teach coping strategies.
Ability to utilize appropriate supervisory skills with volunteers, students and interns.
Ability to prioritize multiple demands independently, and in a self-directed manner, in an ever-changing environment.
Interpersonal communication skills.
Ability to direct the day-to-day activities of patients, their families, students, volunteers and interns.
Demonstrated ability to effectively communicate with children of all ages, families and hospital staff, both verbally and in writing.
Interpersonal and organizational skills.
Ability to independently handle crisis and emergent situations.

Responsibilities

Developing, standardizing, and scaling child life practices across outpatient settings through consultation, education, and training.
Creating training and education toolkits using a “train-the-trainer” model.
Serving as a subject matter expert and consultant to clinicians, nursing, medical assistants, and operational leaders.
Providing hands-on demonstrations, coaching, and guidance related to developmentally appropriate communication, procedural preparation, coping strategies, positioning, distraction techniques, and behavior-reward approaches tailored to ambulatory workflows.
Implementing therapeutic play activities for individual children and groups.
Teaching coping strategies.
Utilizing supervisory skills with volunteers, students and interns.
Prioritizing multiple demands independently and in a self-directed manner in an ever-changing environment.
Directing the day-to-day activities of patients, their families, students, volunteers and interns.
Effectively communicating with children of all ages, families and hospital staff, both verbally and in writing.
Independently handling crisis and emergent situations.