Child Life Specialist Research Paper

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Image being ten and having a mom, dad, and three brothers under the age of nine. Then imagine yourself being very sick. Imagine that your toes and fingertips are falling off from necrosis, having an open wound the size of your hand on your stomach, and not having anyone there to help you and your family through this difficult time. Child life specialist is a pediatric health care professional who work with children and families in hospitals and other settings to help them cope with the challenges of hospitalization, illness, and disability. During this time the child life specialist could not help my family and me. Being said I have put my all into my future of becoming a child life specialist. I want to be there for them. I want to help children and their families the way that the child life specialist couldn't for us.…show more content…
I became close with some of them, however, sadly not all. When I was very sick and dying the child life specialist was unable (with a lack of experience) to explain to me or my family about what was going on. The child life specialist was educated-meaning book smart-although with in the empathy department our needs were unmet as a family and as a patient. Someone with similar experience could have provided what we desperately needed. Someone who understood the pain what my family was experiencing. Many child life specialist do not have the life experience that would enable them be able to put themselves in their patients shoes. All the training in the world will not prepare them the same as having the life experience of being a child with a compromising health condition. They will always be there but the field of child life is in need of more people with real life experiences of childhood traumatic

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