A note to readers • This story is based on interviews with Leticia Clegg, the first and currently the only certified child life specialist at Intermountain Logan Regional Hospital. Since she started in January, there’s been a 90% reduction in the number of kids who have needed a sedative to calm them before same-day surgeries, said hospital president Brandon McBride. These are Clegg’s words, edited for order and length.
My role as a child life specialist is really helping children and their families cope with stressful experiences within the health care setting. It can be procedure support, education, distraction, therapeutic play and teaching coping skills to children.
As a teenager, I had a personal experience with a child life specialist. I was 16 and found myself at Primary Children’s Hospital for an inpatient stay and I needed an IV. I was very scared as I had a huge fear of needles. My nurse recognized my fear and called and asked for child life support. The child life specialist was able to talk to me and show me an IV and support me during the IV procedure. It helped me so much just knowing what it was and finding ways to cope through the poke.
I always knew I had wanted to work with children, but that really just set the stage for me being able to have a firsthand experience of how child life specialists help children in the hospital setting. So I changed my career path.
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I have a bachelor’s in child development. I did an internship at Children’s Mercy hospital in Kansas City. Shortly after I passed my [certification] exam, I got a job at McKay-Dee Hospital in Ogden. I have been a child specialist there for 9 1/2 years and just recently moved up here to Logan.
I have been working mostly in same-day surgery, our inpatient pediatric unit and the emergency room. I do consult to things like medical imaging for swallow studies or lab [blood] draws. Depending on the day, I’m averaging sometimes up to 10 to 12 [patients] a day. I do my best to get to as many as I can.
Must love Bluey
Building rapport with kids means knowing what’s popular. What’s going on? What words do they like to use? What shows are you watching? I would say I am not a video game person, but I do take the time to get to know what video games are popular and how to play some of those basic games.
Bluey is definitely a hit right now. Classic Disney is always a hit. Minecraft is still definitely in, and Zelda. I was playing Zelda just today with a patient.
I work with a variety of ages, from infancy up to adults. My education is [based on] theory and knowing the different developmental stages and ages. That expertise really helps me to be able to switch back and forth and to support patients at their level. Just because a 3-year-old says they’re a 3-year-old that doesn’t mean that they’re necessarily always functioning on a 3-year-old level. It’s really an individualized experience.
The power of preparing a child
In the emergency department, a lot of times parents are in the room … whether that’s the child getting stitches, or an IV start or a conscious sedation for a broken bone. But in places like the operating room, that’s not something that parents are able to be involved in. We are able to go back and support those patients during the anesthesia injection to help decrease anxiety and create more of a positive experience.
When I’m doing my preps for these children, I have my iPad and I’m showing them different pictures and explaining the different rooms they’re going to go to, and it’s always fun when I see the parents that are engaged in watching that and asking me questions. So not only are we preparing the child, but sometimes those parents that aren’t sure. They’re getting some of that education and [its] helping make them hopefully a little bit less nervous about what’s happening with their child.
I have just absolutely loved seeing the power of prepping a child and helping them understand what’s going to happen. We’re decreasing the need for the sedation medication, which not only helps these kids recover quicker and feel better, but I’ve had parents who are like, “Oh, she or he’s going to need sedation medication. There’s no way he’s going to be able to handle going back to the operating room without it.” And after having the conversations and providing the prep and doing the coping plans, the family was like, “Oh, actually maybe they don’t need that, and maybe this will be OK.”
I’ve also been able to get consulted up in our ICU to help with adult patients who have special needs, and I’ve been able to provide things that have helped support them with their treatment plans and keeping them engaged and up and walking, or helping to keep them calm.
How I cope
We work a lot with emotions and we see difficult things at times. I have had to learn over the years how I cope. And I feel like for me, it’s having such an amazing health care team. We support each other through the difficult times. And … I love my ice cream. So there are times that I definitely eat a lot of ice cream doing this job.
But when I look at these difficult experiences, I am so passionate about what I do. When I can be a support for a family going through some of the most difficult times of their life, and I get to help make that just a little bit easier and a little bit better, there’s truly no place I’d rather be than right there supporting that family and the children in those situations.
I am seeing as many kids as I possibly can, but it’s busy, and there are definitely kids that I’m not able to see. I do my best to assess for those, but there’s such a need at Logan Regional for child life. I’m just grateful that I can provide the services that I’m able to.
The difference Clegg makes
Brandon McBride, president of Intermountain Logan Regional Hospital, said in the past, roughly half of the kids in its same-day surgery unit have needed a sedative to calm them before their procedure.
With Clegg’s support, that number has decreased to two patients since January, he said.
Research from the American Academy of Pediatrics suggests child life specialists improve patient outcomes for kids and reduce overall medical costs. When kids feel less anxious, they are more likely to recover faster and less likely to need additional sedation and follow-up care, the study found. Another report found that kids who work with child life specialists are better adjusted to life after hospitalization and are able to return to their lives more easily.
Child life services are free to patients at 11 Intermountain Health hospitals and care sites, the network said in a statement. The advocates’ work is supported by philanthropy, it added, and Intermountain leaders in Logan hope to find community support to expand the service there.
Shannon Sollitt is a Report for America corps member covering business accountability and sustainability for The Salt Lake Tribune. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep her writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by clicking here.
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