Sr. Child Life Specialist or Child Life Specialist II

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When you work at St. Jude, you’ll join a highly collaborative work culture that inspires you every day to be your best.  With opportunities for learning and growth, you can shape a career path that is right for you while also enjoying all the benefits and stability of working for a world-class institution. This includes work-life balance with generous paid time-off and on-campus conveniences that make life a little easier. Join us and you’ll quickly see why St. Jude is consistently ranked by our employees on Glassdoor as a “Best Place to Work.”   

As a Sr. Child Life Specialist or Child Life Specialist II you will assess the emotional, developmental, educational, and diversionary needs of hospitalized children and coordinates therapeutic interventions to address the medical, procedural, surgical, and diagnostic experiences of patients and families.  Plans and implements programs and services to meet the needs identified for assigned clinical population and the child life department.  Promotes and practices the delivery of high-quality family-centered care and services for patients and families.  Serves as a resource for other Child Life staff and assists with the department administration of programming, competencies, event leadership and resource management.

Sr. Child Life Specialist

Job Responsibilities:

• Implement comprehensive clinical programs within area (e.g., child life, music, arts) for assigned clinical population to assess and address needs and experiences of hospitalized children, patients, and families.
• Guide the preparation and execution of individualized therapeutic care plans for the developmental and psychosocial well-being of the patients and families to promote healthy coping.
• Provide developmentally-appropriate preparations and/ or support for medical experiences of patients and families for healthy expression, adaptation, and development of coping mechanisms.
• Lead the development, oversight, facilitation, and modification of individual/group programming to address needs of assigned patients and families.
• Participate and chair committees to ensure overall success of assigned department and institutional projects including communication and evaluation.
• Develop, coordinate, and provide guidance and instruction to interns, and volunteers, and serve as a resource for teams within area.
• Collaborate with interdisciplinary healthcare team and provide consultation as necessary.
• Perform comprehensive assessments of patients and families to identify needs in order to set short/long term goals.

Minimum Education and/or Training:

• Bachelor’s degree in relevant field (e.g., child development, child life, psychology, music therapy, or a related field).
• Master’s degree preferred.

Minimum Experience:

• 5+ years of experience (OR) Master's degree with 4+ years of experience.
• Experience working with project planning and leadership tools.
• Proven performance in earlier role.

Licensure, Registration and/or Certification Required by Law:

• None.

Licensure, Registration and/or Certification Required by SJCRH Only:

• Certified Child Life Specialist from the Child Life Certifying Commission must be maintained

Special Skills, Knowledge and Abilities:

• Performs comprehensive literature search and appraises research and quality improvement evidence.
• Integrates insights and observations across analyses/ sources to identify/ recommend potential opportunities for improvement action and changes in systems or processes.
• Effectively relays understanding of diverse perspectives.
• Can handle communication upwards and downwards as needed.
• Presents information in a clear, well thought out way and tailored to the audience.
• Shows support for the new direction even when the details have not been finalized.
• Uses a data-driven approach to spot early indications of underperformance and takes corrective actions. Celebrates successes.
• Works with partners in their function to find the best solutions that align with functional priorities. Works effectively to find solutions.
• Manages less complex programs , end to end, within area of subject matter expertise using project management tools and methodologies.
• Defines scope and milestones clearly with a clear understanding of patient/ team needs and overall program goals.
• Identifies and regularly communicates with critical cross functional stakeholders, managing resources & conflicts and drive accountabilities.  
• Consistently applies concepts & approaches in child life/ music therapy area and evidence-based and evidence-informed practice to care of patients within area.
• Guides early career team members around steps and approaches for evidence-based practice within own area.
• Ability to look at data more critically and draw meaningful conclusions. Conducts root-cause analysis as needed.
• Quickly rebounds from setbacks, including creating viable plans to move forward.
• Helps others understand the need for change and adapt to it.
• Encourages a culture of patient and family centered care across interdisciplinary teams with a focus on a seamlessly integrated patient experience as appropriate.
• Understands nuances and complexities of patient needs and goes beyond the task to think through new alternatives with interdisciplinary team as appropriate.
• Engages patients and families with compassion and credibility to explore new and different strategies based on changing contexts as appropriate.

Child Life Specialist II

Job Responsibilities:

• Implement a comprehensive clinical program within area (e.g., child life, music, arts) for assigned clinical population, with increased proficiency, to assess and address needs and experiences of hospitalized children, patients, and families.
• Prepare and execute individualized therapeutic care plans for the developmental and psychosocial well-being of patients and families to promote healthy coping.
• Perform comprehensive assessments of patients and families to identify needs in order to set short and/or long-term goals.
• Provide developmentally-appropriate preparations and/ or support for medical experiences of patients and families for healthy expression, adaption, and development of coping mechanisms.
• Develop, oversee, facilitate, and modify individual/group programming and activities to address needs of assigned patients and families.
• Provide guidance, supervision and instruction to interns, and volunteers, and serve as a resource for teams within area.
• Collaborate with interdisciplinary healthcare team and provide consultation as necessary.
• Participate and chair committees to ensure overall success of assigned department and institutional projects including communication and evaluation.
• Represent child life/ creative arts on institutional committees as warranted.

Minimum Education and/or Training:

• Bachelor’s degree in relevant field (e.g., child development, child life, psychology, music therapy, or a related field)
• Master's preferred.

Minimum Experience:

• Bachelor’s degree with 3+ years of experience (OR) Master's degree with 2+ years of experience.
• Proven performance in earlier role.

Licensure, Registration and/or Certification Required by Law:

• None

Licensure, Registration and/or Certification Required by SJCRH Only:

• Certified Child Life Specialist from the Child Life Certifying Commission.

Special Skills, Knowledge and Abilities:

• Effectively relays understanding of diverse perspectives.
• Can handle communication upwards and downwards as needed.
• Presents information in a clear, well thought out way and tailored to the audience.
• Uses standard tools to capture relevant data and analyze research evidence.
• Constructs quality improvements idea and proposes program and practice changes based on evidence and findings. 
• Shows support for the new direction even when the details have not been finalized.
• Uses a data-driven approach to spot early indications of underperformance and takes corrective actions. Celebrates successes.
• Works with partners in their function to find the best solutions that align with functional priorities. Works effectively to find solutions.
• Leverages knowledge of concepts & approaches in child life/ music therapy area to communicate/ implement the steps of EBP including constructing an EBP question and conducting literature searches for best practices.
• Demonstrates an understanding of distinction between evidence-based/ evidence-informed practice and experience-based practice.
• Has working knowledge of project management and planning tools.
• Is able to effectively sequence and prioritize tasks within programs in psychosocial services area and works more independently to manage day to day issues, escalating as needed.
• Understands the overall program goals & patient/ team needs, coordinates with cross functional teams.
• Understands the task at hand, seeks out information, and draws conclusions from available data to deliver outcomes.
• Adapts quickly to changing priorities to perform as needed in his/her role.
• Remains calm when faced with changes to (and in) his/her work.
• Effectively acknowledges and responds to patient queries and requests with compassion and attention as appropriate.
• Consistently engages with patients, families, and care teams to facilitate optimal solutions for patient needs as appropriate.
• Escalates/ redirects effectively for effective and efficient care with a focus on overall patient priorities as appropriate.

Compensation

In recognition of certain U.S. state and municipal pay transparency laws, St. Jude is including a reasonable estimate of the compensation range for this role. This is an estimate offered in good faith and a specific salary offer takes into account factors that are considered in making compensation decisions including but not limited to skill sets, experience and training, licensure and certifications, and other business and organizational needs. It is not typical for an individual to be hired at or near the top of the salary range and compensation decisions are dependent on the facts and circumstances of each case. A reasonable estimate of the current salary range is $60,320 - $105,040 per year for the role of Sr. Child Life Specialist or Child Life Specialist II.

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