We are recruiting for a mission-driven Lead Child Life Specialist to join our team!
We're with you for life’s journey. At Denver Health, purpose isn’t just something we believe in—it’s something we live every day, for life’s journey.
Our Values
Respect | Belonging | Accountability | Transparency
Department
Child Life Program
Job Summary
The Lead Child Life Specialist is a key member of the pediatric healthcare team and Child Life program. The Lead Specialist, under minimal supervision, has shared accountability for achieving the programs mission, vision, and objectives.
The Lead Specialist works in a health care setting focusing on the emotional and developmental needs of children and their families. The Lead Specialist reduces stress associated with the health care experience and enables a child and their family to cope by providing play experiences, presenting medical information in a way that children can understand, and encouraging family involvement in the child's medical care.
The Lead Specialist also serves as a mentor and leader to other child life specialists, students, and interdisciplinary teams. The Lead Specialist routinely collaborates with the Manager and interdisciplinary teams to develop and implement programs that enhance both the Child Life program and patient and family experience. The Lead Specialist will also oversee the Child Life Student & Volunteer programs.
Work Schedule: Tuesday - Saturday, 8am - 4:30 pm.
Essential Functions :
Clinical Interventions: Develops a plan of care including interventions to address the needs of the child and family.
◦ Family and sibling support: Utilizing a family-centered care approach to ensure the patient and family’s individual, cultural, and social needs are met and to provide developmentally appropriate education and support to other children in the family to help them cope with a family member in the hospital.
◦ Preparation and procedural support: Provides psychological preparation to children prior to undergoing medical procedures using expressive/medical play and other techniques to minimize stress or fears related to medical procedures.
◦ Developmental/Therapeutic play: Uses normative and/or therapeutic play opportunities to encourage expression of feelings, process difficult events, explore positive coping skills, promote a sense of mastery and understanding of health care experiences, and to minimize stress associated with health care experiences.
▪ Recognizes the developmental issues specifically related to healthcare experiences.
◦ Diagnosis education: Utilizing developmentally appropriate language to explain a new diagnosis, injury, illness, or death.
◦ Grief support: Providing memory making and legacy building items, developmentally appropriate education and resources for families, and facilitating bedside visits.
Assessment:
◦ Assessing the patient’s current developmental level and providing interventions to enhance development.
◦ Completing Psychosocial Risk Assessment in Pediatrics to evaluate and mitigate pediatric medical traumatic stress.
Charting:
◦ Documents services in patient chart.
◦ Updates documentation as care plans change.
(50%)
Communication:
• Monitors the child’s reaction to hospitalization and provides the staff with timely information to supplement the health care services to the child.
• Consults with family and staff to ensure clear communication and that the best interests of the patient are consistently met.
• Provides ongoing education regarding the scope of child life services, the impact of health care on development, providing developmentally appropriate and emotionally safe medical care, and professional boundaries.
(10%)
Program Management:
◦ Reviews and assists with invoices for equipment, supplies and other resources.
◦ Manages an additional project of significance that contributes to the Child Life program for the foreseeable future. Devises strategies and methods to assure implementation of the project goals and objectives…