The posting
Job Description
This position adheres to the standards set forth by the Specialist - Child Life Services I job description. In addition, this position is responsible for department leadership and completing other duties as assigned. Responsibilities include leading committees/workgroups, facilitating quality improvement projects, mentoring new employees and students, and providing educational experiences for staff.
The Specialist - Child Life Services II, under minimal supervision, develops, coordinates, and implements therapeutic, educational, and recreational child life interventions and programs for patients based on an understanding of normal growth and development and the impact that illness, injury, disability, and hospitalization have on this process. The Specialist - Child Life Services II serves as an active mentor to junior staff and students and creates and evaluates formal and informal learning opportunities.
The Specialist – Child Life Service II is responsible for ensuring that all duties are carried out to the highest possible standard. This position is responsible for completing other duties as assigned.
Responsibilities
- Under the supervision of the Child Life Services Supervisor makes decisions related to the plans of care for women/children.
- Makes day to day decisions regarding assessment and interventions that impact patients and families and collaborating staff/colleagues.
- Makes recommendations to the supervisor regarding decisions that have a unit/service impact.
- Responsible for maintaining up to date mandatory Life Support Training requirements as directed by MoPH and Sidra (e.g. BLS, AED etc).
Essential Function 1
Assesses, meaningfully interacts with, and provides a safe, therapeutic and healing environment for children and families:
- Implements Child Life services using evidence-based practice.
- Establishes and maintains therapeutic relationships.
- Uses developmentally appropriate play as a primary tool in assessing and meeting psychosocial needs.
- Utilizes therapeutic play and other creative modalities to meet individual development and emotional needs.
**Therapeutic play refers to specialized activities that are developmentally supportive and facilitate the emotional well-being of a pediatric patient. Therapeutic play typically consists of at least one of the following types of activities: 1) the encouragement of emotional expression (e.g. reenactment of experiences through healthcare play), 2) instructional play to educate children about medical experiences, and 3) physiologically enhancing play (e.g. blowing bubbles to improve breathing).
- Creates an environment where play is valued and encouraged.
- Prepares and maintains a safe, inviting, and developmentally responsive play environment appropriate for patients and families.
- Plans and implements varied developmentally supportive activities.
- Applies formal and informal assessment techniques to assess psychosocial needs, and continue cyclical process of assessment, plan, intervention, and evaluation.
- Assesses patient and family knowledge level, misconceptions, previous experience, and unique social, cultural, and learning needs.
- Assesses patient and family responses to stress.
- Supports the central role of the family, valuing strengths, and needs; works to maintain family units.
- Utilizes effective communication skills in the process of supporting children and families.
- Provides support to siblings, parents, and other friends and family members in order to improve understanding of the patient’s situation and familiarization with the health care environment.
- Paces interactions in response to a child’s and family’s lead.
- Demonstrates respect for diversity.
- Participates in interdisciplinary care conferences, psychosocial rounds, and nursing report.
- Maintains good interpersonal relations with patients, families, visitors, and other employees, following departmental and hospital-wide philosophy.
- Communicates concisely with others, integrating theory and evidence-based practice to obtain and share pertinent information.
- Provides input about facility design and provisions to promote orientation, comfort, healing, security, and normalization.
- Ensures that the department’s resources, playrooms, and activity areas are maintained appropriately and cleaned per hospital guidelines, adhering to MoPH standards.
- Ensures that infection control procedures are adhered to at all times and provides assistance to the Department in this regard. This would include wiping down table surfaces, toy washing, and acting as liaison with Housekeeping and Infection Control staff.
Essential Function 2
Provides teaching for and assists with potentially stressful patient and family health care events:
- Utilizes knowledge of child development (neonate to adolescent) and family-centered care to:Design and implement child life interventions including age-appropriate preparation and education and procedural support. Plan and implement teaching and support accordingly.
- Provides psychological preparation, incorporating key elements of developmentally appropriate information, encouragement of emotional expression, and the formation of a trusting relationship.
- Uses accurate and developmentally appropriate teaching aids and techniques.
- Recognizes verbal and non-verbal cues and adapts accordingly.
- Uses minimally threatening, developmentally supportive language.
- Describes sensory information, sequence, timing, and duration of events.
- Facilitates planning, rehearsal, and implementation of coping strategies.
- Facilitates opportunities for play to decrease distress and increase effective coping.
- Utilizes appropriate psychological pain management strategies, and advocates for additional intervention as needed.
- Considers the unique needs of the child and family, such as coping style, previous experience, developmental level, culture, spirituality, family situation, and emotional state.
Essential Function 3
Represent, communicate, and teach Child Life services appropriately to other professionals, volunteers, students, and the community; work collaboratively with all parties as needed to achieve optimal outcomes:
- Demonstrates effective advocacy for Child Life practice, emotional safety, and psychosocial issues.
- Integrates interdisciplinary goals into Child Life services.
- Communicates expectations and roles clearly and concisely.
- Creates concise, objective, and accurate clinical notes, documenting information pertinent to the plan of care in alignment with documentation guidelines.
- Recommends consults or referrals when circumstances are beyond the scope of Child Life practice.
- Maintains professional presentation of self, including careful attention to verbal and written communication, as well as standards in dress code.
- Provides comprehensive orientation to services.
- Assesses and responds to diverse learning needs.
- Provides a safe learning and working environment.
- Demonstrates respect for the viewpoints of others.
- Models professionalism at all times.
- Provides orientation to department, assigned patient care areas, and hospital in general to observers, students, volunteers, Child Life Specialist I’s, and Child Life Assistants.
- Creates, facilitates, and leads modules and learning opportunities for child life students.
- Prepares expectations, goals, and plans for student rotation on assigned unit in coordination with the Internship Coordinator/Leadership, and guides students through learning experiences as assigned.
- While directly supervising a student rotation, provides daily assignments, evaluates their work, and provides resources necessary.
- Communicates assessments, projects, and work completed to Child Life Supervisor and Manager on an ongoing basis.
- Attends and participates in assigned meetings.
- Leads or participates in priority initiatives and education.
- Pursues, participates in and leads scholarly activities (publications, research, quality improvement, presentations, etc.) to advance the Child Life profession and best practices.
- Develops and assists in facilitation of department-wide professional development activities including journal clubs, clinical supervision groups, and educational sessions.
- Adheres to Sidra’s standards as they appear in the Code of Conduct and Conflict of Interest policies.
- Adheres to and promotes Sidra’s Values
Essential Function 4
Provides leadership, facilitating successful department performance and quality improvement:
- Leads by example and displays respect for, commitment to, and pride in department and facility.
- Demonstrates vast knowledge of the Child Life profession, Child Life Department, and Patient and Family Centered Care Principles.
- Prioritizes patient and family care needs across areas/teams as needed; takes action to mobilize teammates to address identified needs.
- Demonstrates positive initiative, flexibility, and reliability in accepting and adapting to change and direction at all times.
- Problem solves daily challenges; effectively communicates with and guides teammates in achieving optimal outcomes.
- Demonstrates effective time management skills, balancing patient care needs with leadership tasks.
- Identifies and leads priority department and hospital initiatives, workgroups, and education to improve effectiveness, efficiency, and quality of services delivered to patients and families.
- Acts as a role model and mentor to new Child Life employees through teaching, observing, assessing, and validating skills and competencies.
- Demonstrates and shares high level of expertise in Child Life skill set and Sidra Medicine patient care practices.
In view of the evolving needs and opportunities within Sidra, this position may be required to perform other duties as assigned and reporting relationships may vary.
Qualifications
QUALIFICATIONS, EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS –REQUIREMENTS
ESSENTIAL
Education
Bachelor’s Degree in Child Life or Play Therapy, or Leisure Studies, or Child Development, Child and Family Studies, or Family Centered Care or Human Development or Sociology, or Psychology, or Therapeutic Recreation, or Expressive Arts, or Creative Arts Therapy, or Family Systems, or Social Work, or Early Childhood Education, or Education, or Public Health or Health Care Administration or similarly titled degree; Foundational courses in Child Life, Child Development, and Hospital Play
Experience
- 5+ years clinical experience as Certified Child Life Specialist or Registered Hospital/Health Play Specialist in pediatric settings
- Strong clinical expertise across the competencies of the Child Life field
- Experience in Child Life/Hospital Play department leadership/supervisory roles/responsibilities.
Certification and Licensure
- Child Life Specialist Certification (CCLS) via the Association of Child Life Professionals (formerly Child Life Council, Inc). or Healthcare Play Specialist Education Trust (HPSET) Registration; or Registered Hospital Play Specialist (RegHPS) via the Hospital Play Specialists Association of Aotearoa/New Zealand (Inc.)
- Eligibility for Licensure in the State of Qatar
Professional Membership
Member of the Association of Child Life Professionals (ACLP), National Association for Health Play Specialist (UK), and/or Hospital Play Specialist Association (NZ)
Job Specific Skills and Abilities
- Demonstrated knowledge of Child Life Specialist principles and practices.
- Demonstrated knowledge of best practices in Child Life specialty
- Effective teaching, mentoring, and supervisory skills
- Experience in organizing data and generating thorough, accurate, timely reports.
- Ability to provide assessments regarding developmental reactions to hospitalization and risk for stress potential.
- Ability to design and implement interventions to meet individual patient and family needs.
- Ability to function as a collaborative member of the interdisciplinary team and communicate and advocate for patient/family needs within this team.
- Ability to effectively supervise staff through positive leadership skills and provide consistent and supportive feedback for personal and program improvement.
- Ability to make leadership decisions to simultaneously provide the best patient care and support hospital-wide strategic plans.
- Demonstrated ability to manage multiple tasks including direct clinical work and administrative responsibilities.
- Experience in organizing data and generating thorough, accurate, timely reports.
- Effective team member.
- Effective interpersonal and communication skills.
- Leadership skills.
- Proficiency with Microsoft Office suite
- Fluency in written and spoken English
About Us
Sidra Medicine a healthy population is essential to a strong, prosperous society, and throughout 2020, Sidra continued to provide uninterrupted comprehensive specialist healthcare services for children and young people; and exceptional maternity, gynecology, and reproductive medical services for women, previously unavailable in Qatar and the region.” – H.H Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, Chairperson of Qatar Foundation
Sidra Medicine represents the vision of Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser who serves as its Chairperson. This high-tech facility is home to world-class patient care, scientific expertise, and educational resources.
