Job Description

The University of Maryland Medical Center is hiring a Child Life Specialist to join the Child Life Program as an integral team member providing child life services to adolescent patients and children of adult patients in the R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center. The R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center at the University of Maryland is dedicated to treating the critically sick and severely injured and employing groundbreaking research and innovative medical procedures with one goal in mind: saving lives. This is a new 1-year donor funded position.

Job Duties:

• Assess and support psychosocial needs of adolescent patients admitted to the Shock Trauma Center.
• Facilitate developmentally and situationally appropriate therapeutic interventions as an outlet for expression and normalcy with adolescent patients.
• Develop resources to support adolescent patient population and children of adult population in high stress situations.
• Educate adult medical team about child life services, developmental and psychosocial needs of the adolescent patient, family center care practices to support children of adult patients, and identifying families with anticipatory grief or grief that could benefit from child life services
• Meet with involved adults to assess psychosocial needs of children and their families prior to implementation of therapeutic interventions.
• Understand and provide age-appropriate explanation of key aspects of disease, anticipatory grief, death, loss and bereavement to children, their parents or other involved adults.
• Provide grief and bereavement interventions for children of adult patient, including therapeutic interventions to assess children’s understanding and coping, educational sessions for involved adults including explanations of developmentally appropriate/inappropriate coping and common behavioral concerns, as well as information and resources.
• Collect metrics to assess impact of child life services in Shock Trauma Center with goal of operationalizing CLS position in Shock Trauma Center.

Qualifications

• Minimum of a Bachelor’s degree in Child Life, Child Development, or a related field.
• Two (2) years’ experience as a Certified Child Life Specialist with the adolescent population strongly preferred.
• Position requires strong knowledge of psychosocial preparation, procedural support, documentation, coping skills, trauma informed care, and emotional safety.
• Strong communication skills, prioritization skills, and the ability to collaborate with the interdisciplinary team required

Additional Information

All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.