Exciting Accomplishments

This week at the hospital and I have had a lot of opportunities to be proud of... 


Today, the attending inpatient pediatric physician paged me to help distract a patient who is regressing during hospitalization and is afraid of anyone who is on the medical team. When the attending and his resident team did morning rounds he wanted me to engage the patient in distraction activities so the mother could focus on their information while the patient was not so distraught. It went extremely well and I will now be going in during rounds to do different therapeutic play activities with the patient. I stayed in the room for awhile after rounds and the attending talked to my unit supervisor and said it went amazing and requested that I do the same routine with him daily! 


Another moment this week was I received a card in the mail from a family I worked with heavily last week. I was the primary child life person that they saw. I did a lot of sibling preparation, procedural preparation, and play therapy activities with the patient. This patient and I connected really well and the patient wanted to spend a lot of time with me throughout the week. The patient's parents were also extremely appreciative of child life. The card that the family sent me expressed their gratitude for all the care and attention I gave to their child during their stay at CHaD and how I made the hospital less scary and created a fun environment. They wished me the best of luck with my career and said that I was amazing as what I do already as an intern. They also sent me a family picture and a school picture of their child. Super nice and thoughtful!! :) It made my day! 


Lastly, I am being able to do more and more things independently without my supervisor. I currently introduce child life services to all of the new kids that have been admitted on our floor. I am also in charge of facilitating the volunteers for our unit, pet therapy visits, Chip who is the hospital clown, and many entertainment/sport group visits. 


Already half way done with my first location! I cannot believe how fast it is going! I am loving every minute of it!