What does a child life specialist do?

a. Play games and have fun with patients

b. Help patients learn about their condition

c. Support patients during procedures

d. All of the above.

Answer: D - All of the above. A child life specialist does all of the above and so much more. Our child life team plays an important role on a patient’s care team. Their focus is to provide social-emotional support to children while in the hospital and they are trained to decrease a patient’s anxiety, stress, and pain during procedures. They accomplish this through tools and strategies like play, comfort, pain management, and utilizing distraction tools.

“We get credit for having all the fun, and it’s true! We celebrate the kids’ birthdays and help them write their wish list for Santa. We play video games, build towers with blocks, and dress up like princesses together,” shared Becki Logan, La Rabida Child Life Specialist. “However, it’s not all fun and games. Kids in the hospital experience a lot of stress and pain. It’s our job to help them through those difficult times.”

Pain management is a priority for our child life specialists. Tools and techniques for managing pain include comfort holds, guided imagery, and using tools like the Buzzy, a device that uses cold, vibrating sensations to block pain receptors. A child life specialist can use these tools to decrease the trauma and anxiety a patient may experience during a procedure. This helps make the child and parent more comfortable and more willing to accept future treatment. For children with chronic conditions that require repeated painful procedures, this is crucial.

La Rabida’s child life team also helps kids prepare and cope with the painful procedures they go through. One way they are able to do this is through medical play. To prepare for procedures, our child life specialists will have fun with patients by playing with toys that mimic the medical equipment that will be utilized during their stay. “Medical play can help a child cope with the difficult parts of treatment, such as medicine, needles or bandage changes” shares Viktoria De Jong, La Rabida Child Life Specialist. Medical play can help give the patient’s care team a chance to answer questions and reduce the anxiety that may come with those procedures.

Most importantly, our team of child life specialists are here to help empower our patients and make their hospital stay as enjoyable as possible. Stressed out kids cannot heal, and the essential work from this team helps them do that.

This story was featured in the March 2021 issue of eCurrents. Read the full issue here.