Original job description
Your Opportunity:
Seeking a compassionate and skilled Certified Child Life Specialist to join an interdisciplinary health‑care team dedicated to supporting children, adolescents, and families through the health‑care experience. This role offers a meaningful opportunity to make a lasting impact by promoting coping, resilience, and development during hospitalization. As a Certified Child Life Specialist, you will plan, develop, implement, coordinate, and evaluate therapeutic play and normalization activities that support the social, emotional, intellectual, and physical development of children and adolescents. Your practice will be grounded in family‑centered care and evidence‑informed child life interventions. You will assess patient and family needs and research, plan, implement, and evaluate developmentally appropriate play and therapeutic interventions in both individual and group settings. These interventions are designed to reduce stress, support coping with illness and hospitalization, and promote independence and emotional well‑being. As a valued member of the care team, you will also provide diversionary experiences and special events that promote joy, resilience, and a sense of normalcy within the hospital environment. This position offers the opportunity to combine clinical expertise, creativity, and compassion to deliver family‑centered, child‑focused care in a dynamic health‑care setting.
Description:
As a Child Life Specialist, you will plan, develop, implement, coordinate and evaluate developmental and normalization activities including therapeutic play programs in order to further the social, emotional, intellectual and physical growth of children and adolescents. You will assess, research, plan, implement and evaluate appropriate play and developmental activities/interventions for children and families (both individual and in group settings). You will provide therapeutic play programs designed to reduce stress, help clients cope with hospitalization, promote development and independence. You will help prepare children for diagnostic, medical and surgical procedures through hospital play, demonstrations and discussions and introduce coping strategies and techniques to assist children and families during procedures. You will also provide diversion experiences and facilitate special events.
Classification: Child Life Specialist Union: HSAA Facility PROF/TECH Unit and Program: Child Life Services Primary Location: Stollery Children's Hospital Location Details: As Per Location Multi-Site: Not Applicable FTE: 0.80 Posting End Date: 13-OCT-2026 Temporary Employee Class: Temp P/T Benefits Date Available: 23-OCT-2026 Temporary End Date: 13-OCT-2027 Hours per Shift: 9.69 Length of Shift in weeks: 10 Shifts per cycle: 32 Shift Pattern: Days, Evenings, Weekends Days Off: As Per Rotation Minimum Salary: $40.81 Maximum Salary: $54.34 Vehicle Requirement: Not Applicable
Required Qualifications:
Completion of bachelor's degree in Child Life, Education, Psychology or other related field.
Additional Required Qualifications:
Certified Child Life Specialist - Completion of Child Life Professional Certification Exam. Acute Care Pediatric experience, infant, children and adolescents (0-17 years old). Emergency Department experience.
Preferred Qualifications:
Ambulatory, Emergency or critical care experience is an asset.
More about this job
Responsibilities
Plan, implement, coordinate, and evaluate therapeutic play and developmental activities that support children's growth, coping, independence, and emotional well-being during hospitalization. Prepare children and families for diagnostic, medical, and surgical procedures using play, demonstrations, discussions, and coping techniques, while also providing diversion and special events.
Requirements
A bachelor's degree in Child Life, Education, Psychology, or a related field is required, along with Certified Child Life Specialist certification. Acute-care pediatric experience with patients aged 0–17 and Emergency Department experience are also required; ambulatory, emergency, or critical-care experience is an asset.
Skills
- Child Life Services
- Therapeutic Play
- Developmental Assessment
- Family-Centered Care
- Patient and Family Needs Assessment
- Coping Strategies
- Procedure Preparation
- Pediatric Acute Care
- Emergency Department Care
- Group Facilitation
- Developmentally Appropriate Interventions
- Stress Reduction
- Interdisciplinary Collaboration
- Event Coordination
Visa sponsorship
Not detected in the job text
Categories
- Healthcare
- Social Services
Keywords
- Certified Child Life Specialist
- Child Life Services
- Pediatric Acute Care
- Emergency Department
- Ambulatory Care
- Critical Care
- Family-Centered Care
- Evidence-Informed Interventions
- Therapeutic Play
- Developmental Activities
- Hospitalization
- Procedure Preparation
- Diagnostic Procedures
- Medical Procedures
- Surgical Procedures
- Coping Strategies
- Stress Reduction
- Child Development
- Emotional Well-Being
- Patient and Family Assessment
- Individual and Group Interventions
- Diversion Experiences
- Special Events
- Interdisciplinary Health-Care Team
