This webinar will explore our experience with adapting the internship experience to a virtual setting. During COVID-19, Katie's internship was paused and we decided to find ways to continue the learning experience virtually. Through the use of our telepresence robots, Katie was able to have actual clinical experience. We will discuss our journey and the challenges, successes, and lessons learned through our experience with the intention of demonstrating how technology can be used to provide high quality learning experiences for students at all levels. Suggested Domain: Professional Responsibility

Most child life professionals are familiar with the concepts of burnout and compassion fatigue, and that self-care is an important component to work-life balance. This webinar will explore when some of our professional experiences take us beyond burnout into traumatization and moral injury, and how to identify and respond with our own emotional safety in mind. Exploring techniques such as mindfulness, connection, diffusion, expansion, and choice point. Participants can utilize these strategies to promote resilience and coping as individuals and in group settings. Suggested Domain: Professional Responsibility 1.5 PDUs

All patients and families deserve to receive health information in ways that they can understand and use. It is our duty as health care professionals to address this social determinant of health. During this webinar, we will explore health literacy tools and techniques to better support and educate patients and families. We will also discuss ways to promote and advocate for health literacy practices and principles. Suggested Domain: Professional Responsibility 1.5 PDUs

The current job market in the child life profession is highly competitive. While much attention has been given in recent years to aiding new child life specialists as developing professionals, there is limited support for those who have mastered basic competencies and want to expand beyond their first job. The current presentation aims to empower emerging (and established) professionals who are evaluating their professional growth and providing expertise on how to identify it is time for a career transition as well as how to be successful in a new role as a child life specialist with experience. Building on personal experience, the presenters will highlight: strategies that identify influences contributing to role change; finding areas for growth within current roles; how to identify the right new position; approaches to successfully integrate oneself into a new team; and finally, a discussion on factors that can increase longevity in the field of child life as whole. Recording date: 2019

This pop-up webinar is free for members and will explore child life funding sources, program development, interdisciplinary education, and more. Child life programs share core values for professional practice while operating uniquely. Through literature reviews and a combined three decades of clinical experiences across ten institutions, insights have been gained into operational systems. Hospital funding, program size, coverage plans, opportunities for professional growth, management styles, and self-care will be addressed. Suggested Domain: Professional Development

You’re a new leader—now what?! The first several years in a leadership position have the ability to set the stage for your success in this role. Years of experience will help you further develop your leadership skills, but what about now, in the beginning? This webinar will identify the skillset essential for a developing leader, as well as assist in formulating a plan for further leadership development, using the framework of my top ten tips: -Moving from peer to supervisor -Keeping the emotion out of it -Communicate, communicate, communicate -Sitting on the decision fence -Having your staff’s back while still holding them accountable -Watch out for your lizard brain -Develop a growth mindset -Allow yourself to be vulnerable -Conflict can be your best friend -Know when to fold ‘em Suggested Domain: Professional Responsibility This webinar is part of our Emerging Professionals programming Recording date: 2020

Our style of communication and the words we choose may exert a lasting impact on patients and families' ability to adapt and adjust to their hospital experiences. As Child Life Specialists we are taught throughout our education and training about the power of words, how they influence, as well as, produce an effect on pediatric patients and families. This webinar will promote an understanding of the impact that hospitalization has on each stage of development and review language that should be used within each age and stage. We will also review two schools of thought when speaking with and referring to people with disabilities; “People First Language vs Identity first language”. Participants will be encouraged to explore their own views and biases regarding these different approaches. In addition, we will review culturally sensitive approaches when communicating with minorities in the healthcare setting. Suggested Domain: Professional Responsibility 1.5 PDUs

There is no question that the past two years have produced unprecedented challenges for healthcare workers. Amidst ever changing protocols, social tensions, and political strife, medical professionals, including child life specialists, are reporting significant levels of burnout, emotional exhaustion, and, ultimately, job turnover. Much of the compassion fatigue literature has historically placed emphasis on self-care methods that embrace positive emotions while suppressing their negative counterpart, but could there be a better way? Using the groundbreaking work of best selling-authors and researchers Emily and Amelia Nagoski ("Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle"), and Susan David ("Emotional Agility: Get Unstuck, Embrace Change, and Thrive"), this webinar provides a framework for re-examining the so called ‘negative’ emotions of the profession; avoiding the pitfalls of toxic positivity; and embracing emotional agility as an agent for adaptive coping. Suggested Domain: Professional Responsibility 1.0 PDU