Child Life Volunteer?

[legoac]

Has anyone volunteered with the Child Life program at their local hospital or something similar? I would like to get some hospital exposure, am interested in pediatric nursing, and work at a pre-school so I am thinking it may be right up my alley, I'd love to hear your experiences with the program. Did you feel like it gave you good clinical exposure?

[thinwildmercury]

I volunteer in child life and it is absolutely wonderful! The kids I work with are so great and the parents are always very appreciative :) I wouldn't say I get any clinical experience from it but every hospital is different, so you might. Also there are different "branches" of CL so it may just be my articular branch that doesn't have clinical experience. I think it is a great way to get comfortable working with child patients and communicating with them as well as their protective and very worried family members. Good luck :)

[Shiningstar05]

I currently volunteer at a pediatric hospital and it is really great to interact with patients and people in the hospital setting. There are a variety of departments you can go and I chose the ED. It's fast paced but I like it because I enjoy always having something to do. I also have met a few of the staff who would like to write a reference letter for me because of the effort they see me put in. I'm not working under a nurse or doctor or anything, but I interact with the children and offer comfort measures for them and their family. I tend to be shy so this experience has really helped me gain confidence when interacting with patients.

[flawdperfecti0n]

I'm a child life volunteer at a local children's hospital and I have to say, it's really fun and rewarding. :] Where I volunteer though, there isn't as much clinical exposure since I work in the play area and they try to keep that area as "pain-free" as possible so the kids won't associate it with hospital procedures. On the other hand, I get sent up to patient rooms and the ICU sometimes to spend time with the kids who are too sick to come downstairs. We aren't allowed to ask what happened to the kids, but our supervisors usually tell us what's going on, so I feel like I've learned a great deal from being there, and I've definitely seen a number of cases I doubt I'd ever have witnessed if I hadn't started volunteering there. I'd say definitely go for it. :] Good luck!