Lead Child Life Specialist

About the job

We are recruiting for a mission-driven Lead Child Life Specialist to join our team!
We're with you for life’s journey. At Denver Health, purpose isn’t just something we believe in—it’s something we live every day, for life’s journey.

Our Values
Respect | Belonging | Accountability | Transparency

Department
Child Life Program

Job Summary

The Lead Child Life Specialist is a key member of the pediatric healthcare team and Child Life program. The Lead Specialist, under minimal supervision, has shared accountability for achieving the programs mission, vision, and objectives.

The Lead Specialist works in a health care setting focusing on the emotional and developmental needs of children and their families. The Lead Specialist reduces stress associated with the health care experience and enables a child and their family to cope by providing play experiences, presenting medical information in a way that children can understand, and encouraging family involvement in the child's medical care.

The Lead Specialist also serves as a mentor and leader to other child life specialists, students, and interdisciplinary teams. The Lead Specialist routinely collaborates with the Manager and interdisciplinary teams to develop and implement programs that enhance both the Child Life program and patient and family experience. The Lead Specialist will also oversee the Child Life Student & Volunteer programs.

Work Schedule: Tuesday - Saturday, 8am - 4:30 pm.

Essential Functions :

• Clinical Interventions: Develops a plan of care including interventions to address the needs of the child and family.
• ◦ Family and sibling support: Utilizing a family-centered care approach to ensure the patient and family’s individual, cultural, and social needs are met and to provide developmentally appropriate education and support to other children in the family to help them cope with a family member in the hospital.
• ◦ Preparation and procedural support: Provides psychological preparation to children prior to undergoing medical procedures using expressive/medical play and other techniques to minimize stress or fears related to medical procedures.
• ◦ Developmental/Therapeutic play: Uses normative and/or therapeutic play opportunities to encourage expression of feelings, process difficult events, explore positive coping skills, promote a sense of mastery and understanding of health care experiences, and to minimize stress associated with health care experiences.
• ▪ Recognizes the developmental issues specifically related to healthcare experiences.
• ◦ Diagnosis education: Utilizing developmentally appropriate language to explain a new diagnosis, injury, illness, or death.
• ◦ Grief support: Providing memory making and legacy building items, developmentally appropriate education and resources for families, and facilitating bedside visits.
• Assessment:
• ◦ Assessing the patient’s current developmental level and providing interventions to enhance development.
• ◦ Completing Psychosocial Risk Assessment in Pediatrics to evaluate and mitigate pediatric medical traumatic stress.
• Charting:
• ◦ Documents services in patient chart.
• ◦ Updates documentation as care plans change.
• (50%)
• Communication:
• Monitors the child’s reaction to hospitalization and provides the staff with timely information to supplement the health care services to the child.
• Consults with family and staff to ensure clear communication and that the best interests of the patient are consistently met.
• Provides ongoing education regarding the scope of child life services, the impact of health care on development, providing developmentally appropriate and emotionally safe medical care, and professional boundaries.
• (10%)
• Program Management:
• ◦ Reviews and assists with invoices for equipment, supplies and other resources.
• ◦ Manages an additional project of significance that contributes to the Child Life program for the foreseeable future. Devises strategies and methods to assure implementation of the project goals and objectives are achieved.
• ◦ Assist in inspiring, developing, implementing, assessing, refining, and enhancing the departments’ continuous process improvement strategy and reporting applications and capabilities, including the build out of robust and standard work systems that monitor quality, costs, key trends, program tracking, and strategic, operational, and financial performance.
• ◦ Enforces policies and procedures ensuring regulatory compliance.
• Supervision:
• ◦ Assists with regulatory reviews and preparation for review by reviewing competencies.
• ◦ Provides clinical supervision to other team members, providing ongoing communication, observations, and support.
• (10%)
• Project Management & Quality Improvement:
• ◦ Implements strategic plans to achieve maximum department output and contribution to Denver Health strategy.
• ◦ Implementing initiatives and projects. This may involve assisting in developing project plans, monitoring progress toward on-time completion, and updates for key metrics and milestones.
• ◦ Evaluates and modifies the frameworks and methods to evaluate project success.
• ◦ Consistently reviews industry best practices to identify improvement opportunities and implements industry best practices as needed.
• ◦ Assists in the review and effectiveness of improvement initiatives.
• (10%)
• Supply & Event Management:
• ◦ Selects and maintains program materials related to the Child Life role including but not limited to both developmental & normative toys/items, distraction items, and technology.
• ◦ Assists in community events with PR & marketing.
• ◦ Organization of donations in collaboration with foundation team.
• (10%)
• Volunteers/Student Management:
• ◦ Supervises volunteers, Child Life students and others participating in the Child Life Program.
• (10%)

Education :

• Bachelor's Degree required.
• Graduate Degree preferred.

Work Experience :

• At least 7 years of experience as a Child Life specialist, with a strong background in pediatric healthcare required.

Licenses :

• CCLS-Certified Child Life Specialist - ACLP - Association of Child Life Professionals required.
• BLS-Basic Life Support (BLS/CPR) - AHA - American Heart Association required.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities :

• Active Listening — Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
• Administration and Management — Advance knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, leadership technique, and coordination of people and resources.
• Analyzing Data— Identifying the underlying principles, reasons, or facts of information by breaking down or data into separate parts.
• Child Life— Significant knowledge and expertise of normal human growth and development. With advance skill set to provide clinical child life interventions to decrease medical trauma/stressors within a medical setting.
• Coaching and Developing Others — Identifying the developmental needs of others and coaching, mentoring, or otherwise helping others to improve their knowledge or skills.
• Communicating — Communicating effectively orally and in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience, express or exchange ideas by verbal communications.
• Consultation and Advice to Others — Providing guidance and expert advice to management or other groups on technical, systems-, or process-related topics.
• Critical Thinking — Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.
• Customer Service — Expert knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
• Developing Objectives and Strategies — Expertise in establishing long-range objectives and specifying the strategies and actions to achieve them.
• Establishing and Maintaining Interpersonal Relationships — Developing constructive and cooperative working relationships with others and maintaining them over time.
• Lectures & Presentations — Provides a series of educational presentations, handouts, or lectures to either internally at Denver Health and/or a professional organization outside of Denver Health.
• Monitoring and Controlling Resources — Monitoring and controlling resources and assist with the spending of money.
• Organizing, Planning, and Prioritizing Work — Developing specific goals and plans to prioritize, organize, and accomplish your work.
• Problem solving – Expertise in the ability to systematically analyze problems, draw relevant conclusions and devise appropriate courses of action.
• Psychosocial Support – Expertise in the ability to assess the psychosocial needs for children and their families and implement appropriate interventions to mitigate psychological trauma and provide emotional safety.
• Technology - Familiarity with technology platforms, for example: Apple Products (iPad) & the Microsoft Office Suite (Excel, Word, PowerPoint)
• Thinking Creatively — Developing, designing, or creating new applications, ideas, relationships, systems, or products, including artistic contributions.
• Time Management — Managing one's own time and the time of others.
• Training and Teaching Others — Identifying the educational needs of others, developing formal educational or training programs or classes, and teaching or instructing others.

Shift
Varies (United States of America)
Work Type
Regular (0.9 FTE)
Salary
$62,200.00 - $90,200.00 / yr (Pay range listed is for 1.0 full-time equivalent (FTE). See Work Type for actual FTE)

Benefits

At Denver Health, we take care of the people who take care of our community. Our benefits are built to support your life, your family, and your future — with generous paid time off, fully paid parental leave, exceptional retirement contributions, comprehensive health coverage, and nationally recognized well-being programs. We invest in your growth through tuition assistance, career advancement pathways, and professional development — while also offering meaningful financial advantages through loan forgiveness eligibility and employer contributions. When you join Denver Health, you’re joining a mission-driven organization that invests in you.

• Here is a small list of our benefit programs:
• Paid time off starting at 28 days per year, inclusive of vacation, personal/sick, and 7 Holidays
• 100% paid parental leave up to 6 weeks
• Immediate eligibility for retirement plans with employer contribution up to 9.5%
• Generous medical, dental, vision plans in addition to employer paid disability and life insurance.
• Comprehensive well-being programs including on-site employee fitness center located on Denver Health main campus and nationally recognized RESTORE Center
• Free RTD EcoPass (public transportation)
• Childcare discount programs & exclusive perks on large brands, travel, and more
• Tuition reimbursement & assistance
• Education, coaching, and professional development opportunities through the Workforce Development Center (WFDC) that support internal career growth and advancement pathways
• Professional clinical advancement program & shared governance
• Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) eligible employer+ free student loan coaching and assistance navigating the PSLF program
• National Health Service Corps (NHCS) and Colorado Health Service Corps (CHSC) eligible employer

About Denver Health

Denver Health is an integrated, high-quality academic healthcare system considered a model for the nation that includes a Level I Trauma Center, a 555-bed acute care medical center, Denver’s 911 emergency medical response system, 10 family health centers, 19 school-based health centers, Rocky Mountain Poison & Drug Safety, the Public Health Institute at Denver Health, Denver Health Medical Plan and Denver Health Foundation.

As Colorado’s primary, and essential, safety-net healthcare system, Denver Health is a mission-driven organization that has provided millions in uncompensated care for the uninsured each year.
Located near downtown Denver, Denver Health is just minutes away from many of the cultural and recreational activities Denver has to offer.

Denver Health is an equal opportunity employer (EOE). We value the unique ideas, talents and contributions reflective of the needs of our community. All job applicants for safety-sensitive positions must pass a pre-employment drug test, once a conditional offer of employment has been made. Applicants will be considered until the position is filled.