Do you love children and want to work in a medical setting?
If so, consider a career as a Child Life Specialist.

By Kristin Wells, CCLS
Children’s Hospital

In college I was unsure about what I wanted to do. I was majoring in education at the University of Tennessee but didn’t think that I wanted to be a teacher. However, I did know that I wanted to work with children.

Sometime during my junior year, my sister told me about the field of Child Life. I thought it sounded interesting, so I called the Director of Child Life at Children’s Hospital and eventually became an intern in the Child Life department.

After completing 550 clinical hours, I was eligible to take the certification exam. I passed the exam and am now a Certified Child Life Specialist (CCLS). (I will have to take the exam every 10 years to maintain certification or recertify every five years by accumulating professional development hours.) After college, I was offered a part-time job in the Children’s Hospital Child Life department that eventually turned into the full-time job I have now.

The field of Child Life began from the understanding that hospitalization can have a long-term negative impact on normal growth and development because of the stress it puts on children and their families. Child Life Specialists help reduce the stress placed on children who have to be hospitalized. We prepare children for tests, procedures and surgery and provide support during painful procedures, including using play and other techniques to distract the child during the procedure. We also provide children with opportunities to play.

You might be thinking that much of what a Child Life Specialist does is play with children. However, it goes much deeper than that. By assessing a child through play, a Child Life Specialist can gain insight into ways to help the child cope with the hospital experience.

Children who receive a new diagnosis of a long-term illness are provided with as much additional attention as possible. Clinical nurse specialists (educators) provide technical information, and then the Child Life Specialist follows up with hands-on activities that reinforce the child’s learning.

Parents and guardians appreciate the work Child Life Specialists do. They understand the importance of the services we provide and allow us to use our knowledge, training and experience to help their children. Parents and guardians feel more at ease knowing a Child Life Specialist will be with their child during a painful procedure. The great thing about being a Child Life Specialist is you get to tell the child you are not going to do any hurtful procedures. Our role is to help them get through it.

Child Life staff and volunteers are assigned to various areas of the hospital: the Second and Third Floor inpatient medical units, the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, the Outpatient Clinics and the Scott M. NiswongerEmergency Department.

The Child Life Department also coordinates other programs and activities for patients, including the following:

Preadmission Tours
The Child Life staff offers a tour for any child ages 3-11 who is scheduled for surgery. The tour shows children the places in the hospital they will visit as a patient and prepares them for what will happen. Participants watch a video and play with some medical instruments. For older children and teens, our department has developed a “virtual visit” that describes the surgery experience.

Hello Hospital
Child Life staff and volunteers teach Knox County kindergarten classes about what it’s like to be a patient at Children’s Hospital. The students are shown medical equipment, play “dress-up” with hospital gowns and stethoscopes and have a real cast placed on one of their fingers.

Special Recognitions
The Child Life staff helps patients and families celebrate holidays, birthdays and other family events that occur during the child’s hospitalization. Donations from the community allow Child Life staff members to provide children with gifts on these occasions.

Child Life staff members can work long hours. Child Life staff at Children’s Hospital are available from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. seven days a week – even on holidays.