Child Life Specialist Certified

About the Role

$5,000 sign-on bonus for eligible applicants! As a member of the Child Life Team, plans, develops, and provides Child Life programming for a given clinical area to best meet the psychosocial, emotional, and developmental needs of pediatric patients and their families. Using age-appropriate play, Certified Child Life Specialists (CCLS) consider the issues children face in health care settings and assess patient needs for: normal growth and development, education, preparation, medical play, coping strategies, or other issues to help them in their mastery of the environment.

CCLS is responsible for providing child life interventions to a specific patient population within the policies and procedures of Geisinger. Required to maintain professional certification through continuing education opportunities.

Responsibilities

• Evaluates child's developmental stage, ability to understand and cope with the health care environment, temperament, and emotional state.
• Develops a strategic plan to reduce the fear and anxiety a child experiences with the health care environment.
• Implements specialized services to best meet the individual child's needs including: medical play, preparation for procedures, operations or other medical events, teaching and implementing coping strategies, providing education about disease process and treatment to both the child and their family.
• Identifies patient and family coping strategies in daily routine and applies these strategies to assist patients and their families in coping with the stress of hospitalization, illness, death, and loss.
• Educates patient, family, and staff to other techniques to aid a child in coping and ensures technique is age-appropriate for the development and emotional state of the child.
• Assists in the implementation of such techniques, monitors its effectiveness, and alters the plan as necessary.
• Responsible for leading the child, staff, and family through coping strategies during medical procedures.
• Educates and prepares patients and their families for medical procedures, disease processes, and mastery of the healthcare environment using appropriate and therapeutic play activities as treatment tools.
• Interprets and communicates patient's perception of diagnosis and treatment as revealed through play and other means of communication, both verbal and nonverbal, to staff and family.
• Integrates Child Life services by providing consultation to other health care workers regarding developmental and behavioral issues which impact on patient care.
• Creates, implements, and orients other health care staff to age-appropriate behavior reward methods to promote a patient's adaptation to treatment and encourage patient cooperation.
• Creates and distributes resources about child health and safety in general as needed.
• Assures therapeutic and safe environments for individual and group play.
• Selects, purchases, and maintains the safety and cleanliness of toys, games, and other equipment used in the play areas to comply with departmental infection control policies and procedures.
• Documents Child Life interventions in the patient's medical record in accordance with Geisinger policies and procedures.
• Participates in record keeping of vital statistics for the Child Life Department demonstrating which Child Life services have been provided to patients.
• Educates and acts as a resource for health care professionals regarding the psychosocial issues of pediatric health care, and the impact of illness, injury, and hospitalization on patients and their families.
• Develops and schedules in-services as needed for multidisciplinary team members and community groups.
• Interviews, orients, coordinates, schedules, and supervises Child Life volunteers in their daily work with patients in all patient care areas.

Work is typically performed in a clinical environment.

Requirements

• Completion of a Child Life Internship (minimum 600 hours) under the direct supervision of a Certified Child Life Specialist.
• Bachelor’s degree in Child Development, Education, Psychology, or a related field.
• Must meet the requirements to be eligible for professional certification by the Association of Child Life Professionals (ACLP).
• Certified Child Life Specialist within 6 months of employment.

Benefits

• Full benefits (health, dental, and vision) starting on day one.
• Three medical plan choices, including an expanded network for out-of-area employees and dependents.
• Pre-tax savings plans with healthcare and dependent care flexible spending accounts (FSA) and a health savings account (HSA).
• Company-paid life insurance, short-term disability, and long-term disability coverage.
• 401(k) plan that includes automatic Geisinger contributions.
• Generous paid time off (PTO) plan that allows you to accrue time quickly.
• Up to $5,000 in tuition reimbursement per calendar year.
• MyHealth Rewards wellness program to improve your health while earning a financial incentive.
• Family-friendly support including adoption and fertility assistance, parental leave pay, military leave pay, and a free Care.com membership with discounted backup care for your loved ones.
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP): Referrals for childcare, eldercare, & pet care. Access to free legal guidance, mental health visits, work-life support, digital self-help tools, and more.
• Voluntary benefits including accident, critical illness, hospital indemnity insurance, identity theft protection, universal life, and pet and legal insurance.
• Membership to The Association of Child Life Professionals and certification annual maintenance fees provided by the department.
• As part of a teaching institution, this department provides an ACLP accredited internship and supervises practicum students.

Qualifications

• Minimum of 1 year of related work experience (Preferred).

Pay

$5,000 sign-on bonus for eligible applicants.