Child Life Interview

On Monday (10/5/2015), I interviewed Shay Dillis. Shay is a Nurse Practitioner(NP) in the Cardiac Pre-op clinic. She has worked at Boston Children’s Hospital since 1998. Over her 17 years at Boston Children’s Hospital, she has worked in the CICU, heart transplant team, and the Cardiac Pre-op clinic. Some of her roles in the clinic include coordinating the day of patients, obtaining the patients’ medical histories, performing physical examinations, providing “anticipatory guidance,” and collaborating with other providers (S. Dillis, personal communication, October 5, 2015). When I asked Shay about what she knows that child life does for patients and families, she replied “Over my experience, I’ve realized that what child life does is setting …show more content…
Dillis, personal communication, October 5, 2015). She noted that patients with developmental delays tend to “have a hard time getting through the day of labs and tests” (S. Dillis, personal communication, October 5, 2015). In these cases, Shay said the child life specialist in the clinic, Maureen, will often call the patient’s caregivers to find out the child’s past experiences in the hospital and what helps the child cope. After that information is received, the NPs collaborate with Maureen to determine the timing or order of the day and labs. She said that child life is an important part of the team because the “role of a child life specialist is less threatening to patients and families” (S. Dillis, personal communication, October 5, 2015). Shay also noted that because the role is less threatening, child life is able to help prepare and support patients and families throughout the pre-op day. Towards the end of the interview Shay said “The need is huge for child life. We need more child life specialists and more hours. Then all patients could have child life” (S. Dillis, personal communication, October 5,