Happy nurses week to each and every nurse I’ve had the pleasure of working with during my adventure in child life. Child life specialists are dedicated to making your job a little easier by keeping our patients (and their families) calm, distracted, and happy. You guys are rockstars! 💜💉💊🎉

Happy Child Life Month, everyone! My schedule at work is jam-packed with fun events and activities for our patients, families, and staff to engage in all throughout the month of March. Some of these activities include a Child Life month kick-off carnival, a teddy bear clinic, a bubble party, a syringe painting party, and a Child Life birthday party!

I’m also doing something special this year for Child Life month… drumroll, please…!

Adventures in child life merchandise!

You can find my Etsy shop here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/Adventureinchildlife   – This has been a dream of mine for a long time and I’m so excited to finally get it started. Stay tuned as I will be adding more exciting merch in the upcoming months.

What fun and exciting things do you all have planned for this year’s Child Life month?

Today is world diabetes day! I thought I’d share one of my favorite resources to teach patients about diabetes. American Girl makes these adorable diabetes care kits which our child life team is lucky enough to be able to give away (along with an American Girl doll) to our newly diagnosed patients. The kit serves as a great teaching tool by including: a daily log, an insulin pen, glucose pills, and more! I love using this kit as a guide while reviewing diabetes education with patients by seeing how much they know & answering any questions that may arise. What are some cool ways you teach patients about diabetes? 

Looking through my blog you can quickly notice that it mostly contains the good in the field of child life. Naturally, I am not a negative person thus I don’t highlight the bad – i.e., being called for support after 3 failed IV attempts, not having necessary resources to fulfill patient needs, getting a referral to “entertain” a patient. Though definitely annoying, there’s bad like this within any career in one way or another and it’s just something you learn how to handle. However, I’m going to take a deep breath and write this post about the ugly that I’ve experienced during my time as a CCLS – burnout.  

Some of you may remember that up until February of this year, I was working independently in a pediatric emergency department at a children’s hospital within an adult hospital. I began working there 1 month after my internship and had to quickly learn the ropes of the ER flow, culture, and procedures/diagnosis, as well as educate the staff on my role, advocate for resources I needed to fulfill patient needs, and personally adjust my life to being a new young professional! That is a lot for anyone and much more so for someone working in an independent child life program. I did not complain or see this part of my adventure as daunting – I was excited and ready to take on this challenge! This is what I had studied for. This is what I had done internships for. This was my calling.

Day in and day out I juggled all of my new challenges and with sweat, tears, and so much love, I had successfully implemented my role as a CCLS amongst my ER team. I knew I was doing something right when the ER physicians would fight over who “got me” for their upcoming procedure;”You had her last time! My kid is terrified and I need her to help him be still for these sutures!” Music to any child life specialist’s ears, right?

The needs of any emergency department call for more staff to be on shift in the later hours of the day which is when most patient’s visit the emergency room. That being said, my shift was from 3pm – 11pm, Monday through Friday, and every other weekend (Saturday and Sunday shift, same hours). Looking back, this was the poison that caused my burnout – my schedule.

I began to feel desensitized towards my work and my interactions with patients and families began to seem routine. I felt as though I had reached a plateau in my clinical skills – I knew what I knew and what I didn’t know I didn’t have another CCLS to seek advice from so I didn’t feel I was growing. I’d spend entire shifts in and out of long procedures only to then be frowned upon by higher-ups because I had “only” seen x number of patients that day. As time went on I also felt I’d dwell on the little things (the bad) much more than I once would. I hated that I felt this way so early on in my career. I hated that I didn’t have another CCLS to speak to about professional and clinical issues I was facing. I hated that I didn’t have the support/understanding/resources from higher ups in my hospital. Most of all, I hated that I had to work the shift that I did and that it was poisoning my love for child life.

My black cloud (schedule issue) was especially hard for me because everyone else in the department – physicians, nurses, ED techs, respiratory therapists, patient transporters, medical scribes, even my two child life assistants – they all worked 12-hour shifts! I was the only employee in the emergency department that worked 40 hours a week, odd hours, weekends, with direct patient care. I collected data, research articles, and proposals of ways I could alter my schedule (working four  10-hour shifts versus the current five 8 hour shifts) and presented this to my manager. Unfortunately, I was told my proposal did not meet the needs of the department and so no changes could be made.

Now I know what you might be thinking (because I thought it too) – I signed up for this! Yes, I absolutely did and I was eager and ready to do so at the time. But after a year and a half of working 5 days a week in such a fast-paced and high-stress environment, it happened. I became burnt out. I did my research and unfortunately found lots of information on how to avoid burnout but very little on what to do when it actually happened. I was completely lost and disheartened – I knew I loved being a child life specialist. I loved the way I was able to help kids in crisis – I knew what to do, what to say, and I did it so well that physicians would wait their turn for me to help their patients.

Maybe I should’ve posted on the child life forum about my burnout, maybe I should’ve presented my research and data to the director of the ER, maybe I should’ve found a new job before I ever even got to that point. The thing about burnout (for me at least) is that I didn’t realize it was happening until I was already down the rabbit hole and by that point, I didn’t have the passion or drive to try and get myself out.

So how did I get myself out of burnout? I spent a LOT of time on the child life council’s web page searching the forum for data on emergency room child life hours, searching for the articles on burnout, and searching for the slightest indication that there was another CLS  out there in the same predicament I was in. That’s when I found my cure – the child life council’s mentor/mentee program. I submitted my application and was accepted into this incredible program where I was partnered with a mentor – a veteran child life specialist!

The way that the program works is that you highlight different areas that you would like support with. Then from January – June, you and your mentor have a monthly phone call (or meet in person if able) to discuss your issues. You’re also able to attend a monthly webinar which focus on different issues many may be facing (i.e., communication skills, leadership skills, etc.). I cannot begin to explain what an incredible impact this program had not only on my career but in my personal life as well. I finally had the support I had been craving all along and with it, I found my passion, drive, and confidence to be proactive towards my career goals.

Fast forward to present day, I did end up leaving the emergency room as I felt it was very important for me to work as a part of a child life team. I am very thankful and still do feel blessed that I had the opportunity to spend two years in the ER. I wouldn’t trade it for the world! I truly learned so much about medicine, the importance of teamwork, and about myself. I’ll always miss my old department and especially all of the amazing people I worked alongside. Though I did hit a low while I was there, I have an abundance of positive memories of my first two years as a CCLS which outweigh the bad and the ugly in hindsight.

I find comfort in knowing that the child life council offers a program like this one for its members. For anyone in search of guidance, support, or wanting to further their professional skills – I highly recommend this program! For information on the mentor/mentee program, click the following link: http://www.childlife.org/ldi/mentoring.cfm

I just found this months favorite find and I am so excited that I’ve come to share it right away! Ted Talk has a new video up all about child life titled “Fun in the Face of Crisis”. Please watch, share, and comment/like to raise awareness on our fascinating profession. You can see the video by clicking the following link: http://youtu.be/T_Kvefokrpw

In recent weeks I’ve been learning a lot about the health insurance portability and accountability act (HIPAA) and what that means for me as a blogger. What is HIPAA? HIPAA is a law that protects patient information and the security of health-care information. For example, if I were to post a selfie with, let’s say, Blue Ivy Carter in the hospital and captioned the photo “Omg, I had the fiercest patient today getting her tonsils removed!”; I’d be in LOTS of trouble and not only lose my job but have some legal issues as well. (For the record, I have never met Blue Ivy Carter nor do I know the status of her tonsils.) Anyways, what’s the big deal and how does this apply to blogging? Well, while that last example was obviously a HIPAA violation, you’d be surprised how vague the rules can seem.

With all of this talk about rules, I decided to compile a list of some of my own rules I follow in the blog world as a health care professional as well as some fun tips.

• Always keep HIPAA in mind when posting ANYTHING! Does it include a patient’s name? Can someone recognize the patient from your story (even if you changed their name in the story)? Can someone find a connection between the patient and what you’re posting (i.e.,room number/date/family heirloom in the background of the photo)? If you answered yes to any of those questions or if you’re 1% hesitant- DON’T POST IT!
• Don’t include the name of the hospital where you currently work in your post(s). Doing so could become a big marketing issue with your hospital.
• If posting on Instagram, don’t skip the hashtags. We are pioneering Child Life in the social media world and we definitely want to prove ourselves as more than just #toyladies. Placed a g-tube in an American Girl doll? #childlifespecialist #childlife #pediatrics #healthcarejobs #education #gtube – Hashtags help reach a variety of audiences think high school students, nursing students, med school students, nurses, doctors, psych majors, education majors, therapists, anyone! Use hashtags to raise awareness of Child Life and the importance it has in the lives of children.
• Bloggers: watermark your photos! Adventures in Child Life will be turning 4-years-old early next year which means I have uploaded lots of photos onto the internet. And boy, have those photos been saved, put through filters, downloaded, cut, resized, and uploaded by many other people. Luckily by watermarking my photos my name stays on them so if people want to share, the more the merrier! It’s a great way to get your blogs name out there. My favorite app to watermark is called “Over”.

When reading up on health care bloggers I found a great post that eased my HIPAA fears – follow this link to have a look for yourself: Don’t be afraid of HIPAA

What are some of the rules you follow, fellow health care bloggers?