Child Life Specialist - Full Time - ED

Advocate Health and Hospitals Corporation • Park Ridge, IL

11d • Onsite

About The Position

The Child Life Specialist will work in the Emergency Department at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital. This full-time position is responsible for normalizing the hospital environment through therapeutic play and activities, developing supportive relationships with patients and families, and providing direct patient and family support. The role involves preparing children for treatments, advocating for pain management, and educating staff on pediatric-friendly medical care. The specialist will also facilitate communication, participate in interdisciplinary rounds, and coordinate events. Additionally, this role involves managing in-kind donations and supervising student interns and volunteers.

Requirements

• Certified Child Life Specialist within 6 months year of hire.
• Bachelor’s degree in Child Life/Child Development or a directly related field
• Completion of ACLP approved child life internship and experience with all age groups
• Health Care Setting experience
• Ability to function in a multidisciplinary environment while providing direct patient/family care.
• Ability to establish supportive relationships with children and their families and maintain rapport.
• Experience and comfort working with hospitalized children, patients diagnosed with mental illness, developmental delay, and/or who display challenging behaviors in individual and group contexts.
• Ability to adapt interventions to meet the needs of patients with special needs.
• Experience and/or comfort working with patients and families during critical illness and at end of life.
• Must be able to demonstrate knowledge and skills necessary to provide care appropriate to the age of the patients served (typically 0-21 years).
• Must demonstrate knowledge of the principles of growth and development over the life span and possess the ability to assess data reflective of the patient’s status and interpret the appropriate information needed to identify each patient’s requirements relative to his/her age-specific and/or developmentally appropriate needs.
• Understanding, supportive, and empathetic to individual needs of a diverse patient/family population.
• Strong PC skills and understanding of current technologies utilized in the medical setting.
• Works safely and efficiently under stressful and difficult situations.
• Resilient and flexible in an ever changing environment.
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills (both written and verbal).
• Assessment skills, organizational skills, and knowledge on how to prioritize patients.
• Proven leadership skills, ability to prioritize in a fast paced and high demand setting, and strong organizational skills.
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills as demonstrated through establishing and maintaining positive relationships with patients, parents, donors, and other team members.

Responsibilities

• Allows for normalization within the hospital environment through therapeutic play interactions and various activities.
• Plan and implement special activities for children and adolescents.
• Develop supportive relationships with children, adolescents, and families.
• Provides direct patient and family interactions and support in areas of expertise, including growth and development, sibling support and bereavement.
• Provide patient and families with available resources.
• Establish and facilitate support groups.
• Prepares children and families for treatments and procedures and accompany throughout (when appropriate) in order to enhance coping and minimize medical trauma. This may include but is not limited to medical play, preparation, support, distraction, and post procedural support.
• Advocate for pain management and comfort measures.
• Educate staff on developmentally appropriate ways to administer medical treatment in a pediatric friendly way to minimize medical trauma.
• Promotes and facilitates patient/family and interdisciplinary communication using written and verbal techniques to facilitate effective patient/family care, professional relationships and to identify issues or concerns.
• Participates in interdisciplinary rounds and individual patient care conferences.
• Performs skills safely and independently according to the established policies, procedures, standards, and guidelines to accommodate individual patient/family needs and responses.
• Responsible for personal growth and development. Participates in conferences, classes or other professional training to enhance skillset and maintain certification as a Certified Child Life Specialist.
• Coordinates, plans, and implements events with patients and families to ensure typical development and enhance coping while receiving medical treatment.
• Partners with Public Affairs and Marketing and Advocate Charitable Foundation to coordinate and implement special events with donors and community partners in order to develop, nurture and maintain relationships.
• Maintain all in-kind donations and utilize restricted funding per donor intent.
• Manages delivery and storage of all in-kind donations, toys, and supplies.
• Interview, select, orient, and supervise student interns and volunteers in Child Life, Creative Arts Therapies, and Education Department.
• Provide orientation to specific units and ongoing training for volunteers and child life interns during assignment to specific unit/area.
• Provide guidance, direction, and feedback for volunteers and child life student interns.
• Report to Internship/Volunteer Coordinator(s) for assignments with volunteers and student interns.

Benefits

• Paid Time Off programs
• medical, dental, vision, life, and Short- and Long-Term Disability
• Flexible Spending Accounts for eligible health care and dependent care expenses
• adoption assistance and paid parental leave
• Defined contribution retirement plans with employer match and other financial wellness programs
• Educational Assistance Program

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Entry Level