Keeping Play in the Forefront of Child Life Services in Critical Care Settings

Modern child life practice, though rooted in play, is often focused on acute patient needs such as procedural preparation, support and diagnosis education. Child life specialists who work in NICU, CCU and PICU collaborate to illuminate the importance of keeping play in the forefront of interventions. Current research on play will be discussed as it relates to trends in healthcare, job satisfaction and multidisciplinary collaboration. SUGGESTED DOMAIN: Assessment

Objectives:
Develop play focused interventions for infants and toddlers that improve coping in critical care settings.
Describe prioritizing play in the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit through daily practice of staff, play groups, utilization of unit specific playroom.
Critique common approaches to play with critically ill children and develop strategies for infusing play into daily care practices in the Pediatric Critical Care Unit.