Editor's Note: Every March is Child Life Month, which is a wonderful spotlight for awareness on the field of Child Life. As part of our celebration, More Than Medicine will "spotlight" child life specialists from various areas of Le Bonheur Children's. Today's post takes a look at our wonderful critical care child life specialist.

By Jamie Droke
Child Life Specialist

In honor of National Child Life Month (March), we are continuing to explore the many different areas of the hospital our department covers. As I mentioned last week, child life looks very different depending on the area in which you cover. This week, we will highlight yet another area where the services we provide are slightly different than those we offer in our inpatient or outpatient areas. Today I want to tell you a little about our critical care specialists.

Child Life Specialists cover in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, the Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit, and the Intermediate Care Unit. These specialists provide support to the families of our most critical patients. They utilize family support techniques to help families implement effective coping strategies and better understand the medical plan of care. Particularly in the NICU and IMCU, our patients can have pretty long hospital stays. In these areas, specialists provide developmental stimulation in order to help patients continue to grow and develop while in the hospital. Another aspect of critical care is sibling support. Specialists in these areas prepare siblings to visit patients so that siblings are not overwhelmed by the medical equipment and monitors. These specialists can also provide memory-making opportunities for families.

These specialists spend a lot of their time providing:

• Preparation for patients and families for procedures/tests
• Emotional support
• Sibling visits and support
• New diagnosis teaching
• Memory-making/legacy building
• Developmental stimulation
• Education regarding effective coping and self-care
• Anticipatory grief support
• Bereavement support

As you can see, inpatient specialists, outpatient specialists, and critical care specialists share many of the same responsibilities. However, child life has a slightly different emphasis in each of the various areas. The best news is that if you have to visit any of these four areas, you are likely to encounter someone from our team. For our last full week of Child Life Month, we will look at the remainder of the child life department, including Child Life Assistants, our Leadership Team, and Hospital School Teachers. In the meantime, Happy Child Life Month!!!