Child Life Specialist

Shriners Children's; St. Louis (MO); On-site; USD 50,000 - 75,000; Full time

Job summary

Shriners Children’s in Missouri is seeking a Child Life Specialist to provide developmentally appropriate, family-centered care to patients up to age 18, with psychosocial support and education for families.

Responsibilities include individualized assessments, planning treatment, therapeutic play, preparation for procedures, interdisciplinary collaboration, and documentation in EMR, while upholding department standards.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Child Life, Child Development or Related Field required.
• Certified Child Life Specialist (CCLS) required within 6 months.

Responsibilities

• Performs individualized assessments to develop an evidence-based treatment plan.
• Plans and implements an individualized treatment plan with psychosocial and emotional focus.
• Educates patients and families about medical care, hospitalization, discharge, and reentry into the community.

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Child Life / Child Development or Related Field

CCLS certification within 6 months

Job description

Company Overview

Shriners Children’s is an organization that respects, supports, and values each other. Named as the 2025 best mid-sized employer by Forbes, we are engaged in providing excellence in patient care, embracing multi-disciplinary education, and research with global impact. We foster a learning environment that values evidenced based practice, experience, innovation, and critical thinking. Our compassion, integrity, accountability, and resilience define us as leaders in pediatric specialty care for our children and their families.

With 20+ hospitals, outpatient clinics, ambulatory care centers and outreach locations across the globe, we provide excellent care to children up to age 18 regardless of their family’s ability to pay or insurance status. Please click here to learn more about our locations.

Job Description

The Child Life Specialist provides comprehensive, purposeful, developmentally appropriate, and culturally sensitive, family-centered care. This care is focused on meeting the psychosocial and developmental needs of children and families. Provides evaluation and therapeutic services, direct patient care and patient/family education, in an efficient manner. Services may include therapeutic play, preparation, procedural support, special events, and reintegration programming.

Key Responsibilities

• The child life specialist performs an individualized assessment to collect comprehensive and accurate data necessary to assess development, temperament, coping style, medical plan cultural preferences & practices, and available social supports in order to develop an individualized treatment plan.
• Demonstrates competency in assessment and utilization of therapeutic play techniques, in an age appropriate manner to formulate a treatment plan for optimal level of improvement, positive outcomes, and a period for meeting short and long term goals.
• The child life specialist plans and implements an individualized treatment plan that identifies goals and evidence-based treatment intervention strategies, with an emphasis on psychosocial and emotional needs of the patients and their families.
• Educates patients and family members about medical care, hospitalization, discharge, and reentry into the community. Provides emotional support and educational materials and techniques to increase knowledge and understanding of medical procedure and the hospital experience.
• Participates in interdisciplinary patient care planning.
• Ensures that intervention is compliant with department policy and the professional standards of practice.
• Utilizes electronic medical record applications to document relevant patient and family information. Documents patient assessment, goals, treatment plan, participation and progress, including significant occurrences, accurately and within established timelines and utilizing appropriate forms/formats per department policies and procedures.
• Ensures proper communication within the multidisciplinary team to ensure patient goals and treatment plan are being implemented.
• Collaborates with the interdisciplinary team to contribute to overall treatment and discharge planning.
• Ensure interdisciplinary communication and serves as a liaison between departments for benefit of the organization.

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Child Life, Child Development or Related Field
• Certified Child Life Specialist (CCLS) Required within 6 months

Preferred Qualifications:

• Masters degree in Child Life, Child Development or related field
• 1 Year Child Life Experience

Compensation is determined based on years of relevant experience and departmental equity.