Child Life Specialist - Pediatric Emergency & Urgent Care

We are recruiting for a motivated Child Life Specialist - Pediatric Emergency & Urgent Care to join our team! We are here for lifes journey. Where is your life journey taking you? Being the heartbeat of Denver means our heart reflects something bigger than ourselves, something that connects us all: Humanity in action, Triumph in hardship, Transformation in health. Department Child Life Program Job Summary The Child Life Specialist I ("Specialist") is a key member of the pediatric healthcare team. The Specialist, under general supervision, works in a health care setting focusing on the emotional and developmental needs of children and their families. The Specialist reduces stress associated with the health care experience and enables a child and their family to cope by providing play experiences, presenting medical information in a way that children can understand, and encouraging family involvement in the child's medical care. The Specialist routinely works in collaboration with a multi-disciplinary healthcare team and other professionals in ambulatory care, emergency care, and inpatient settings. Essential Functions: Clinical Interventions: Develops a plan of care including interventions to address the needs of the child and family. Family and sibling support: Utilizing a family-centered care approach to ensure the patient and familys individual, cultural, and social needs are met and to provide developmentally appropriate education and support to other children in the family to help them cope with a family member in the hospital. Preparation and procedural support: Provides psychological preparation to children prior to undergoing medical procedures using expressive/medical play and other techniques to minimize stress or fears related to medical procedures. Developmental/Therapeutic play: Uses normative and/or therapeutic play opportunities to encourage expression of feelings, process difficult events, explore positive coping skills, promote a sense of mastery and understanding of health care experiences, and to minimize stress associated with health care experiences. Recognizes the developmental issues specifically related to healthcare experiences. Diagnosis education: Utilizing developmentally appropriate language to explain a new diagnosis, injury, illness, or death. Grief support: Providing memory making and legacy building items, developmentally appropriate education and resources for families, and facilitating bedside visits. (50%) Communication: Monitors the childs reaction to hospitalization and provides the staff with timely information to supplement the health care services to the child. Consults with family and staff to ensure clear communication and that the best interests of the patient are consistently met. Provides education regarding the scope of child life services, the impact of health care on development, providing developmentally appropriate and emotionally safe medical care, and professional boundaries. (15%) Assessment: Assessing the patients current developmental level and providing interventions to enhance development. Completing Psychosocial Risk Assessment in Pediatricsto evaluate and mitigate pediatric medical traumatic stress. (15%) Charting: Documents services in patient chart. Updates documentation as care plans change. (10%) Supply Management: Selects and maintains program materials related to the Child Life role including but not limited to both developmental & normative toys/items, distraction items, and technology. (5%) Volunteers/Student Management: Supervises volunteers and others participating in the Child Life Program. (5%) Education: Bachelor's Degree required. Work Experience: Two years of experience as a Certified Child Life Specialist in a hospital setting is highly preferred. Licenses: CCLS-Certified Child Life Specialist - ACLP - Association of Child Life Professionals required or must be eligible for CCLS certification. BLS-Basic Life Support (BLS/CPR) - AHA - American Heart Association required. Knowledge, Skills and Abilities: Active Listening Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times. Child LifeIntermediate of knowledge and expertise of normal human growth and development. With intermediate skill set to provide clinical child life interventions to decrease medical trauma/stressors within a medical setting. Communicating Communicating effectively orally and in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience, express or exchange ideas by verbal communications. Critical Thinking Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems. Customer Service Familiarity with the principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction. Developing Objectives and Strategies Establishing long-range objectives and specifying the strategies and actions to achieve them. Establishing and Maintaining Interpersonal Relationships Developing constructive and cooperative working relationships with others and maintaining them over time. Organizing, Planning, and Prioritizing Work Developing specific goals and plans to prioritize, organize, and accomplish your work. Problem solving Entry level ability to systematically analyze problems, draw relevant conclusions and devise appropriate courses of action. Psychosocial Support Entry level skills in the ability to assess the psychosocial needs for children and their families and implement appropriate interventions to mitigate psychological trauma and provide emotional safety. Technology - Familiarity with technology platforms, for example: Apple Products (ipad) & the Microsoft Office Suite (Excel, Word, PowerPoint) Thinking Creatively Developing, designing, or creating new applications, ideas, relationships, systems, or products, including artistic contributions. Time Management Managing one's own time. Shift Days (United States of America) Work Type Regular Salary $50,700.00 - $76,100.00 / yr Benefits Outstanding benefits including up to 27 paid days off per year, immediate retirement plan employer contribution up to 9.5%, and generous medical plans Free RTD EcoPass (public transportation) On-site employee fitness center and wellness classes Childcare discount programs & exclusive perks on large brands, travel, and more Tuition reimbursement & assistance Education & development opportunities including career pathways and coaching Professional clinical advancement program & shared governance Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) eligible employer+ free student loan coaching and assistance navigating the PSLF program National Health Service Corps (NHCS) and Colorado Health Service Corps (CHSC) eligible employer Our Values Respect Belonging Accountability Transparency All job applicants for safety-sensitive positions must pass a pre-employment drug test, once a conditional offer of employment has been made. Denver Health is an integrated, high-quality academic health care system considered a model for the nation that includes a Level I Trauma Center, a 555-bed acute care medical center, Denvers 911 emergency medical response system, 10 family health centers, 19 school-based health centers, Rocky Mountain Poison & Drug Safety, a Public Health Institute, an HMO and The Denver Health Foundation. As Colorados primary, and essential, safety-net institution, Denver Health is a mission-driven organization that has provided billions in uncompensated care for the uninsured. Denver Health is viewed as an Anchor Institution for the community, focusing on hiring and purchasing locally as applicable, serving as a pillar for community needs, and caring for more than 185,000 individuals and 67,000 children a year. Located near downtown Denver, Denver Health is just minutes away from many of the cultural and recreational activities Denver has to offer. Denver Health is an equal opportunity employer (EOE). We value the unique ideas, talents and contributions reflective of the needs of our community. Applicants will be considered until the position is filled. Denver Health was founded as City Hospital in 1860 to serve the health care needs of the rapidly developing city of Denver. Since then, we have grown alongside the community to become a complete health care system, proudly providing care for all residents -- at every point in their lives. We believe healthy people are the foundation of a vibrant community, and Denver Health has been treating and healing the people of Denver for more than 160 years. Today, Denver Health delivers preventive, primary and acute care services. We are committed to making our community a healthy place to live, work and raise a family. Youll see that commitment in the programs we offer, through the care we provide and in our determination to achieve continuous improvement so our community always has the best care available. As a comprehensive, integrated organization, we provide hospital and emergency care to the public, regardless of ability to pay. This integration promotes continuity of care for each patient and assures health care that is delivered in the most efficient, cost-effective setting. We care for: thirty-three percent of Denver's population annually; Denver Health sees nearly 1,200,000 total patient visits annually. one in three Denver-area children each year. the needs of special populations such as the poor, uninsured, pregnant teens, persons addicted to alcohol and other substances, victims of violence and the homeless. As Colorado's primary safety-net institution, Denver Health has provided uncompensated care and serves as a model for other safety net institutions across the nation.