Activity Coordinator

Children's National Hospital; United States; On-site; USD 25,000 - 40,000; Full time

Job summary

The Activity Coordinator at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, DC provides therapeutic and diversionary play activities for our pediatric patients and their siblings to promote hospital adaptation and family-centered care.

The role requires excellent communication, group management and organizational skills, and it involves supervising play spaces, coordinating volunteers, and collaborating with Child Life Specialists to meet each child’s needs.

Qualifications

• Associate’s Degree in Child Development or related field required.
• 1 year job-related experience working with children or two years of college in child development or related field required.
• Knowledge of child and adolescent growth and development; strong interpersonal and written communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Introduce patient programming and supportive services to patients, parents, and siblings.
• Plan, facilitate and supervise group and spontaneous play for patient care areas.
• Organize monthly activity calendars to encourage socialization among patients and families.
• Supervise play activities and maintain a safe, welcoming play space.
• Provide input to Child Life Specialist on observed needs of individual children.
• Supervise volunteers in playrooms and play spaces.

Skills

Excellent communication

Group management

Organizational skills

Interpersonal skills

Oral and written communication

Team collaboration

Diversity experience

Education

Associate’s Degree in Child Development or related field

Job description

111 Michigan Avenue NorthwestWashington, DC 20010

Kids Are Our Everything.

Department

10286 Child Life and Integrated Care

Pay Range

$18.40 - $29.14

Full time position, evenings and weekends expected

The Activity Coordinator provides opportunities for children to gain a sense of mastery, through play and learning experiences. The Activity Coordinator is responsible for providing therapeutic and diversionary play activities to an assigned group of pediatric patients and/or siblings to promote normalization of the hospital environment, positive adaptation to the hospital and a family centered care focus. Requires excellent communication, group management and organizational skills. The Activity Coordinator will demonstrate a strong commitment to a team approach.

Minimum Education

Associate’s Degree Child development or related field (Required)

Minimum Work Experience

1 year Job related experience working with children or two years of college education in child development or related field is required. (Required)

Required Skills/Knowledge

Knowledge of child and adolescent growth and development, high level of interpersonal communication skills, effective oral and written communication skills, ability to work independently and as a team member with proven knowledge of medical terminology. Candidate must have experience working with individuals from diverse backgrounds and cultures.

Functional Accountabilities

Hospital Environment/Developmental Needs

• Introduces patient programming and supportive services to patients, parents, and siblings
• Plans, facilitates and supervises group and spontaneous play opportunities for assigned patient care area(s)
• Encourages socialization and peer interaction between patients and families by organizing and providing a monthly calendar of scheduled activities for play spaces
• Supervise and/or monitor play activities for assigned patient care area(s)
• Maintains play space as a “safe”, welcoming and supportive environment by ensuring medical procedures/consults/meetings occur outside of area
• Encourages caregiver involvement in play area activities for normalization and informs patients, families and health care team of available resources
• Provides input to the Child Life Specialist about observed specific needs of individual children; determine when the needs of individual children should be attended to by child life specialists, nursing and/or medical professionals and outside the general scope of the activity coordinator role
• Responsible for ongoing supervision and support to volunteers in playroom, play spaces or bedside

Developmentally Appropriate Activities

• Delivers toys/activities to patient rooms that support adjustment to hospitalization, encourage play and promote normal growth and development as requested by Child Life Specialist, Nursing or self-referral
• Provides one on one interaction with patients as determined by Child Life Specialist or self-referral
• Provides opportunities for choice and encourages involvement in decision making
• Recognizes and builds on strength of families by acknowledging and utilizing parent’s knowledge of patient’s abilities, interests and needs
• Identifies patients for volunteer support and provides guidance to volunteers in the selection of age/developmentally appropriate activities
• Engages and collaborates with hospital programs and ancillary services to enhance patient support as appropriate

Patient/Family Environment

• Organizes play space to be a welcoming environment for patients and families
• Inventories, restocks and maintains play space materials in collaboration with Child Life Specialist
• Cleans toys/games/equipment daily in accordance with hospital toy washing policy
• Completes required documentation of Toy Cleaning Log
• Facilitates contact with EVS, Facilities and Bio-Med to ensure play space and equipment are well maintained
• Adheres to hospital policy regarding visitors and siblings in play space
• Safely assists patients to and from play space and special events
• Reports concerns/safety incidents to Director of the department for follow up and documents safety concerns per department and hospital policy

Professional Environment & Standards

• Meet with Department Director for regular supervision, preparing agenda and discussing areas of concern
• Respond to requests for services as stated in department standards
• Participate in Child Life meetings as appropriate and in departmental staff meetings
• Meet all departmental requirements for chart recording, statistics, and other professional documentation and submit documents in a timely manner
• Participate in departmental performance improvement activities
• Plan absences in collaboration with Child Life and Integrative Care team members
• Participate in professional development activities
• Participate in planning of community outreach and advocacy events

The disclosed salary range includes the minimum and maximum rates within which Children’s National believes an individual’s base pay rate will fall for this position. It is not typical for an individual to be hired at or near the maximum of the pay range. The exact pay rate for this position will be based on a variety of factors in alignment with the Children’s National compensation philosophy. These factors are legitimate and non-discriminatory including, but not limited to, the current market conditions; organizational needs; the individual’s combination of prior work experience, level of education, knowledge, skills, and other qualifications. Children’s National is committed to providing a fair and competitive total rewards package to each of our employees. This base salary range does not include our comprehensive benefits package or any additional compensation for which this position may be eligible.

Childrens National Hospital is an equal opportunity employer that evaluates qualified applicants without regard to race, color, national origin, religion, sex, age, marital status, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender, identity, or other characteristics protected by law. The “Know Your Rights” poster is available here: and the pay transparency policy is available here:Know Your RightsPay Transparency Nondiscrimination Poster.

Please note that it is the policy of Children’s National Hospital to ensure a “drug-free” work environment: a workplace free from the illegal use, possession or distribution of controlled substances (as defined in the Controlled Substances Act), or the misuse of legal substances, by all staff (management, employees and contractors). Though recreational and medical marijuana are now legal in the District of Columbia, Children’s National and its affiliates maintain the right, in accordance with our policy, to enforce a drug-free workplace, including prohibiting recreational or prescribed marijuana.