This week, I met a family who was devastated by their healthy baby randomly coding, escalating into pretty immediate brain death, and therefore dragging them into the longest three days of their lives.  I met the family shortly after the code had happened and the child was intubated. The doctors needed to place an art line; a sterile procedure that required the family to leave the bedside. I took them to a quiet room along with our chaplain and provided them with water and crackers. I then sat in the room with them as they grieved and cried in confusion and hurt. I listened as the mother ..read more

I’ve had several students express strong, emotional feelings about getting an offer on second offer day.⁣ “They didn’t pick me first”⁣ “They didn’t want me first” “They wanted someone else and then chose me when the other student said no” ⁣ ⁣Did you know that the song, “Hit Me Baby One More Time”- one of the best-selling singles of all time- was offered to TLC first? It was only given to Britney Spears after TLC declined the offer. ⁣ ⁣After releasing two albums, Rihanna still didn’t really have a name in the music industry. It wasn’t until she released “Umbrella” which then became her breakou ..read more

STUDENTS: Please note that some of these situations or experiences may be things you’ve never considered could be a part of a child life specialist’s job duties. That’s okay. While every day may not be sunshine, rainbows and butterflies – not every day is like this either. Any job is going to have good/bad parts to it. This is just my way of sharing these parts of the job in a transparent way so that you are aware that we do so much more than play. The child life specialists that I asked these questions to are still active and working in the field. So while it may be the not-so-good parts of c ..read more

STUDENTS: Please note that some of these situations or experiences may be things you’ve never considered could be a part of a child life specialist’s job duties. That’s okay. While every day may not be sunshine, rainbows and butterflies – not every day is like this either. Any job is going to have good/bad parts to it. This is just my way of sharing these parts of the job in a transparent way so that you are aware that we do so much more than play. The child life specialists that I asked these questions to are still active and working in the field. So while it may be the not-so-good parts of c ..read more

STUDENTS: Please note that some of these situations or experiences may be things you’ve never considered could be a part of a child life specialist’s job duties. That’s okay. While every day may not be sunshine, rainbows and butterflies – not every day is like this either. Any job is going to have good/bad parts to it. This is just my way of sharing these parts of the job in a transparent way so that you are aware that we do so much more than play. The child life specialists that I asked these questions to are still active and working in the field. So while it may be the not-so-good parts of c ..read more

STUDENTS: Please note that some of these situations or experiences may be things you’ve never considered could be a part of a child life specialist’s job duties. That’s okay. While every day may not be sunshine, rainbows and butterflies – not every day is like this either. Any job is going to have good/bad parts to it. This is just my way of sharing these parts of the job in a transparent way so that you are aware that we do so much more than play. The child life specialists that I asked these questions to are still active and working in the field. So while it may be the not-so-good parts of c ..read more

STUDENTS: Please note that some of these situations or experiences may be things you’ve never considered could be a part of a child life specialist’s job duties. That’s okay. While every day may not be sunshine, rainbows and butterflies – not every day is like this either. Any job is going to have good/bad parts to it. This is just my way of sharing these parts of the job in a transparent way so that you are aware that we do so much more than play. The child life specialists that I asked these questions to are still active and working in the field. So while it may be the not-so-good parts of c ..read more

STUDENTS: Please note that some of these situations or experiences may be things you’ve never considered could be a part of a child life specialist’s job duties. That’s okay. While every day may not be sunshine, rainbows and butterflies – not every day is like this either. Any job is going to have good/bad parts to it. This is just my way of sharing these parts of the job in a transparent way so that you are aware that we do so much more than play. The child life specialists that I asked these questions to are still active and working in the field. So while it may be the not-so-good parts of c ..read more

The idea of “child life” is appealing to a lot of people. I hear it often from staff, patients and families – “You get to play all day?! THAT’S your job? Lucky you!” And they’re not wrong. A lot of what I’m trained to do is engage children in developmentally appropriate play – whether that’s to normalize their hospital experience, provide medical play before a procedure, distract during the procedure, or teach them some coping techniques in a playful manner. I do a lot of playing. Unfortunately, a lot of people pursuing the field sometimes wind up in this job not realizing the entirety of what ..read more

I have always had a passion for students. Taking it way back to when I was a child playing with my sister, I was always the teacher during our pretend play. I had toyed with the idea of going to school to be a teacher, but didn’t love the aspect of a room full of 25 children. I love children, don’t get me wrong, but it does take special people to do the job of classroom “teacher” and that was not my calling. In 2013, when I first stumbled upon child life during my undergrad, I took the binder that my advisor handed me haphazardly stating, “I don’t know anything about this career, but this kind ..read more