March is Child Life Month. Child life specialists work to ease the anxiety experienced by children and their families undergoing challenging health care experiences during their hospital stay. Robin Ostedgaard joins me now by phone to tell us more about the child life therapy program at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. Robin is a certified child life specialist at UI Children's Hospital.
How many child life specialists work within UI Children's Hospital?
There are 10 of us.
Do therapists specialize within certain areas of UI Children's Hospital?
Yes, all the child life specialists are assigned to provide services to patients and families, specific pediatric units, and clinics throughout the hospital; and then we have one person who works in research.
What sort of activities do you or other therapists work on with the children?
Basically we help children learn about and cope with their illnesses through play. We prepare children for medical procedures; we let them explore medical equipment—real medical equipment and play medical equipment; and we try to clear up any misconceptions that they may have through play.
Why are play and distraction so important in a child's life, while they are hospitalized?
Play is really a child's work and when children are hospitalized, they go through very stressful situations and they don't have a lot of control over their lives. Play is a way for them to express themselves and kind of let us know, as adults, what's going on in their world.
How do the therapists work with the parents of the children?
We work—we treat the children and their families together. We have, actually, some parent groups that the parents attend alone. We help the parents cope with hospitalization by providing emotional support, and just try to normalize things for them and help them cope with the environment.
As part of the medical team, are you also looking or watching for signs the child may or may not be emotionally handling their illness or hospitalization?
Yes, we kind of observe for stress signals in children and there are different variables that we look for. We observe children during play and interact with them so that we can determine those signs and try to help them deal with hospitalization.
Is a job as a child life specialist a rewarding career?
Definitely! It's a very rewarding career. I like it because it's different every day. I get to meet lots of different children and families that come from different situations. It's just very exciting working with the kids and being able to watch them grow developmentally and cope with hospitalization. |
