Meet Stormont Vail’s Child Life Specialists!
One of the main tenets of Stormont Vail Health, is creating an environment of trust, comfort and confidence brought about by a competent, compassionate and caring staff. Child Life Specialists embody that value, by working with the hospital’s most vulnerable patients, children.
Stormont Vail Health has two Child Life Specialists, Francine Gollub and Emilie Chavez, as part of their jobs, they each work to provide a safe space for children to explore, imagine, and process things that are happening in everyday life, including hospitalization. Child life specialists help provide specific activities for normalized, therapeutic or medical play to help with understanding aspects of hospitalization and help with overall coping.
Often times children facing a hospital stay, injury or chronic illness can find it difficult to cope and heal. Francine and Emilie help these children overcome their feelings of fear, confusion, loss of control and isolation. They work in partnership with doctors, nurses, social workers and family members to promote effective coping skills through play, self-expression activities, and age-appropriate medical preparation and education.
Stormont Vail Health is also the Children’s Miracle Network hospital for Northeast Kansas. Each year through special campaigns, corporate sponsorships, and advocacy work, funding is raised that goes towards critical life-saving treatments and healthcare services, innovative research, vital pediatric medical equipment, and child life services.
When talking about why she became a Child Life Specialist at Stormont Vail Health, Emilie states, “I became a Child Life Specialist because I want to help make the hospital a less scary experience for children and their families. I do this by helping explain what the child may hear, see, or feel, while they are at the hospital while incorporating language that they can understand according to their developmental level. I also help explain different aspects of the hospital by incorporating play or items that the child may be familiar with, such as stuffed animals. I enjoy helping children and their families feel more comfortable at the hospital by answering any questions they may have as well as bringing in toys to provide normalcy during their hospitalization. I also enjoy being able to provide support during procedures.”
Often highly immersed with patient care, Child Life Specialists are placed in a vital role, often dealing with daily changes and using creativity in developing coping plans for patients. Child life specialists are unique in that they focus on the encompassing psychosocial needs of the patient, including mental, emotional, and social needs.
Child Life Specialist Francine says, “I chose to be a child life specialist because I knew I wanted to help children and was interested in the medical field. I had medical issues as a child as well, so once I found out about child life it interested me to help other children who may go through a similar experience. My favorite part of my job is seeing when I have made a positive impact on a patient and getting to build rapport and connections with patients and families.”