Sr. Child Life Specialist or Child Life Specialist II

Better at Work. Better at Life. 
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 evi