Child Life Specialist - Pediatrics

Community Hospice and Palliative Care, a leading non-profit organization specializing in hospice care is hiring a Pediatric Child Life Specialist to join our growing team. Offering a competitive salary and benefits, generous PTO, and retirement options, Community Hospice provides a supportive work environment to grow your professional career.

Under the direction of the Pediatric Department team manager, the Child Life specialist is responsible for helping pediatric patients and families (to include siblings) understand and manage challenging life events, stressful healthcare experiences related to the child’s life-limiting, life-threatening condition and develop with the team opportunities to enhance quality of life through social support experiences.

Position Details

• Certification Required: Certified Child Life Specialist (CCLS) required, at time of hire
• Days/Hours: Usually Monday - Friday 8:30am - 5:00pm
• Work Location: Duval County and surrounding areas; typically in hospital or home health settings
• Compensation: $59,000 to 61,000 base salary; plus any paid driving mileage; full benefits package including 23 days PTO annual

Primary Responsibilities
By providing developmental, educational, and therapeutic interventions for children and their families, the Child Life Specialist helps reduce the stress and anxiety that children experience as a result of their medical care with resultant impact on the child’s family. Requires occasional evening and weekend work.

• Child life interventions will be provided in Community Hospice Centers for Caring, partner long-term care facilities, and Community Hospice patients’ homes. The position supports medical, nursing, pastoral, and psychosocial providers working with the families.
• Provides memory making, legacy building activities, and anticipatory grief/bereavement support to child/children impacted by their loved one’s terminal illness and/or potential death.
• Provides child-life focused education to parents/caregivers on topics that include coping strategies, memory making, behavioral management appropriate to the child’s development, behavioral management, memory making, and coping strategies.
• Provides therapeutic play activities to facilitate expression of feelings and coping skills for the impacted child(ren).
• Collaborates with the interdisciplinary team to screen for patients/child(ren) most appropriate for child life interventions.
• Develops individual plans of care based on assessment of the child’s need, development, temperament, coping style, medical situation, and available support.
• Provides patients and families opportunities for medical play, memory making, distraction, activity modification, coping, and other child life-associated activities, to support the child and family and, as appropriate, to normalize the situation.
• Collaborates with Community Hospice social worker/psychosocial specialist on patient/family psychosocial needs to ensure interventions specific to child life focus.
• Maintains ongoing inter-team communication related to child(ren) responses to child life interventions and observations.
• Helps parents to understand their child's response to child life interventions; assist child(ren) in better understanding their loved one’s illness/condition.
• Educates patients, families, and staff on child-life appropriate coping and support techniques.
• Demonstrates professionalism by developing, facilitating, and/or accomplishing skills and programs that reflect the state of art of child life.
• Participates in grief camp programs as needed.
• May require occasional evening or weekend work when needed

Plan of Care:

• Communicates timely, thoroughly, professionally with interdisciplinary group members, patients, and or caregivers, and other Community Hospice departments.
• Actively involves interdisciplinary group in initiation/review/evaluation of Plan of Care as needed.
• Evaluates services provided to patients, apprising Director/Manager if compliments/complaints or opportunities for improvement are expressed. Attends and participates in IDG meeting as needed.

Completes Documentation:

• Documentation completed is reflective of patient care given, services provided, any concerns noted, and patient status; is legible, neat; is accurate, thorough, and completed in a timely manner.
• Care Plans are kept current, applicable to patient/caregiver/child(ren) goals and needs.
• Patient Incident Reports are completed accurately and submitted immediately to the Director/Manager.

Education/Experience:
Any combination of education and experience that would provide required skills and knowledge for successful performance would be qualifying. Typical qualifications would be equivalent to:

• Bachelor’s degree in Child Development or Therapeutic Recreation
• Certified Child Life Specialist (CCLS), issued by the Child Life Certifying Commission under the Child Life Council
• Child development/child life or therapeutic recreation experience

Desired Knowledge:

• Principles and practices of child development, therapeutic recreation.
• Dynamics of family relationships and family systems

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About Community Hospice & Palliative Care
Established in 1979, Community Hospice & Palliative Care is an innovative national leader in palliative and hospice care, as well as providing programs and services to meet the diverse needs of the communities it serves. During its 42-year history, through the support of more than 900 employees and 500 volunteers, the organization helps approximately 1,400 patients per day to live better with advanced illness – at home, in long-term care and assisted living facilities, in hospitals and at its 10 inpatient care centers.

Job Type: Full-time

Pay: $59,500.00 - $61,000.00 per year

Benefits:

• Dental insurance
• Employee assistance program
• Flexible spending account
• Health insurance
• Life insurance
• Paid time off
• Tuition reimbursement
• Vision insurance

Schedule:

• 8 hour shift

Experience:

• Child development/therapeutic: 1 year (Required)

License/Certification:

• Certified Child Life Specialist (Required)

Work Location: Hybrid remote in Jacksonville, FL 32257