Child Life Professionals

 (Non- TACLP Members)

 $115 

TACLP Members

 $85

 Child Life Students

 $60

Session Title

Domain

Summary

Using Social Platforms and Media to Connect Families Facing Illness

Intervention

Patients and families thrive when connected to one another. This has been proven through support groups, advisory boards, coffee breaks, and more. This presentation discusses the use of podcast, social media and other online platforms to create a community for families with children facing illness and other hospital experiences.

Play is Work, Work is Play

Intervention

Play is a vital part of the healing process for hospitalized children. In order to provide optimal patient care and experience, child life activity coordinators/assistants must utilize assessment skills to create meaningful, individualized play experiences for each child. Play experiences within the hospital provide opportunities to allow for health coping and normalization. It is essential for child life activity coordinators/ assistants to examine the barriers to provide these play experiences and how to overcome them.

End of life: Pearls and pitfalls from this pediatric provider

Ethics

Utilizing case studies from in hospital pediatric end of life care would like to discuss challenges and successes with didactic pearls relating to communication at end of life, ethical dilemmas at end of life and providing support to families and staff when the unexpected happens.

When Child Life is not Sunshine and Rainbows

Professional Development

An in-depth look at secondary traumatic stress and how it affects the child life specialists

Working with children of adult patients; A randomized clinical trial of a psychosocial intervention for children who have a parent with cancer

Intervention

This presentation presents the results of a randomized clinical trial of a child centered parental cancer intervention that resulted in improvements in both ill parents’ and children’s outcomes. We will discuss results as well as lessons learned from the community academic partnership required for successful implementation.

To Infinity and Beyond! Explore How Medical Play Interventions Can Have A Memorable Impression to Patients, Medical Staff and the Community

Intervention

This session will explore innovative medical play interventions that include the development of enhanced teaching tools. Participants will learn how medical play interventions were implemented with various patient populations and opportunities to educate multi-disciplinary staff members. The benefits of how medical play can include medical staff and the community to participate in direct and non-direct patient care settings will be discussed.

Meet Them Where They Are: Adapting to microsystems for a system-wide, procedural pain management program

Assessment

What are microsystems and how do they impact program implementation and driving culture change? This presentation will review the work of a child life specialist as the program coordinator of one organization’s system-wide, procedural pain management program and the strategic implementation of the program to promote ownership and sustainability.

Good Grief: Applying Grief Theory to the Hospital Setting

Intervention

This presentation will focus on current grief theory and application through communication techniques. Case examples and discussion will be utilized to promote learning and retention.

Fitting In and Finding Your Flow

Assessment

As pediatric healthcare increasingly shifts away from long inpatient stays, more child life specialists will be called on to adapt their services to an outpatient clinic setting. It is crucial to refine and strengthen foundational skills of assessment, prioritization, and communication to prepare ourselves to stretch in this new direction. 

Legacy is for the Living

Intervention

Child Life Assistants/Activity Coordinators may function under the assumption that bereavement support is outside their scope of practice. This may be due to the belief that bereavement support is only based upon hand molds, locks of hair, inkless prints and emotional support at the end of life.  However, this view can shift if a Child Life Assistant/Activity Coordinator, begins bereavement support at the time of diagnosis. Child Life Assistants/Activity Coordinators can provide memory making interventions that serve as a living legacy for patients and families. These interventions may also provide support and memories for any hospitalized child and family, not just those at end of life.

Strengthening the Mind, Body, and Spirit Through Mindfulness-Based Expressive Art

Professional Development

The purpose is to showcase a new clinical intervention that advances the science of caring and teaches people that mindfulness is an important life skill. This creative Arts workshop supports clinicians practicing caring science and allows participants to experience mindfulness using breathwork, mantras, and art. Self-reflection and creative expression occurs in a sacred space where a therapeutic relationship is reinforced. Suffering is alleviated, resilience is strengthened, and the experience of human caring is affirmed. A bead, the earliest art form known to humans, is gifted to bestow honor and express human caring. It serves as a tangible reminder of mindfulness and promotes positive well-being.

Developmental Positioning in Premature Infants: Expanding Child Life’s Role in the NICU

Intervention

The presentation will provide attendees with advanced interpretation and knowledge to provide developmental care to premature infants within the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). A multidisciplinary approach to developmental care and positioning warrants child life participation and can provide a strong impact in the neonatal ICU setting.