Author’s Note:  The views and opinions expressed in this post are those of the author and do not represent the views or opinions of Sidra Medical and Research Center.

by Thomas Hobson
Child Life Director

This week I am beginning my second week out in Doha, Qatar.  After having one week under my belt, Sidra Medical and Research Center is making a lot of sense.  Since the hospital is brand new, and opens in 2012, there is a great deal of work that has been done.  Still there is more that needs to be done. As I mentioned last time, my role is to help them to develop their own child life program.

Simply furthering the case that I love working in child life, I am enjoying the challenges that developing a new program bring up.  I will be the first to admit that there is difference between changing a preexisting program and developing a brand new one.  So, I thought I would take a second to talk about what steps I am taking at this point.

One of my first jobs is to get an understanding for where the project is at this point.  This has meant meeting with individual service areas and getting a feeling for where they are in the process.  If you can imagine the complexity of Le Bonheur, you can imagine how many meetings that translates into.  I have met with all the major clinical areas, as well as most of the support areas.

When I meet with a group, it begins with the groups explaining their areas.  This includes explaining how patients will flow through the area, the scope of services, service specific considerations, and other various items.  I continue the meeting by discussing the role of child life in the particular area and opportunities for services excellence.  I have been fortunate because Sidra has been tremendously receptive to Child Life Services, and want a strong incorporation of child life interventions.

Developing a brand new program includes understanding many factors.  There is the consideration of the number of beds, the specialty of units, projected number of patients, size of units, and many other factors.  There are policies to be written, work flows to be developed, and job descriptions to be developed, to name a few. Needless to say, this is a big task that Sidra takes very seriously. 

I am happy to be part of developing what I believe is the first Child Life Program in the Middle East.  It’s been wonderful to use all of the lessons learned as we’ve developed Le Bonheur Children’s Child Life Services.  It’s great to have Le Bonheur be part of impacting the care of children throughout the world.