Journal
The child life intern will keep a daily journal describing all on-site activities, giving the Intern the means for recording and analyzing experiences. This journal will be reviewed each week by the director.

In the journal, the child life intern will:

1. Keep a log of all on-site activities.
2. Reflect on those activities, evaluating his/her experience in light of material read and in light of related course work.

Case Study
The child life intern will prepare two (2) three to five page typed case study before the completion of the internship. The case study serves the purpose of integrating theory and practice as it related to one patient’s experience. A 20 minute oral presentation will be made to the child life staff. The case presentation should include the following:

1. Patient’s first initial, age, and diagnosis
2. Summation of Diagnosis (definition and general treatment)
3. Developmental level and how it pertains to interventions
4. Patient’s medical history
5. History and assessment of child and family
6. Child life assessment – identification of needs and problems
7. Child life interventions
8. Results of interventions, evaluation, and further plans

Developmental Assessments
Over the course of the internship, the child life intern will be responsible for (5) five developmental assessments. These informal assessments will focus on seven distinct areas of assessment: patient/family, patient’s hospital experience, social, and emotional, motor, language and cognitive developments. The intern will complete one assessment from each of the following age groups: infant, toddler, preschool, school age, and adolescent.

Therapeutic Play Session Plans
Child life interns will be expected to write a minimum of (7) seven therapeutic play sessions. The session plans will include goals, materials needed, component, diagnosis and age of participants, and a task analysis. Minimally, one session plan should be written from each of these seven component areas: medical play, pre-operative teaching, bedside play, developmental play, patient/family support, distraction, and infant stimulation. These session plans are to be followed out during the intern’s rotation.

Articles
At the beginning of the internship, the child life intern will be given (6) six articles pertaining to issues directly related to child life. The intern will be responsible for reading one article every two weeks and turning in a one page typed review of the article and how it impacts Child Life. The articles will be discussed during supervision meetings.

Rotations
There will be several clinical rotations under the guidance of a Certified Child Life Specialist. The student will gain exposure to a general care unit and a critical care unit.

Special Projects:
Le Bonheur Children’s Medical Center recognizes that a number of child life academic programs require that interns complete a special project during the course of the internship. Recognizing the validity in special projects, the child life internship at Le Bonheur Children’s Medical Center program has chosen to focus on the application of theories and techniques. With this in mind, the internship program substitutes the developmental assessments and therapeutic play session plans in the place of a special project. If an academic program will not accept the changes in place of a special project the director will work with the program to find a compromise.