"Stories Worth Sharing:" Narrative, Reflective Practice, and Self-Compassion

This presentation will discuss findings and implications from a qualitative research study in which child life specialists were invited to share stories about their work. Data analysis revealed many stories followed a similar pattern, in which child life specialists described the value of their work in terms of the positive impact it was supposed to have. When child life specialists encountered a situation where they felt unable to do "good" child life work, they often described feelings of grief, frustration, uncertainty, and self-criticism. However, some participants narrated these past work experiences in ways that supported self-compassion, including redefining success and focusing on lessons learned. A variety of coping resources, including debriefing with mentors, clinical supervision, professional therapy, and job crafting, were also reported, to manage feelings of burnout and compassion fatigue.

This presentation will also emphasize lessons learned from creating a space for narrative meaning-making to emerge during the research process. Participants frequently emphasized that their child life stories could not be shared or understood by their support systems outside of work. The research interview thus provided an unexpected opportunity to process with a child life peer, creating an encounter that at times resembled clinical supervision and reflective practice. The relational research principles (Clandinin, 2022; Etherington, 2007) that guided this study will be described. During interviews, the researcher practiced an ethics of care that centered the well-being of participants' and prioritized human connection and transparency. During analysis, the researchers (two child life specialists) practiced reflexivity to remain aware of how their personal beliefs and professional experiences might shape their reactions to participants' stories. This presentation will examine how these concepts can be applied by supervisors and mentors to support narrative meaning-making as child life specialists and students talk about clinical experiences in both formal and informal reflective practice settings.

Suggested Domain: Professional Responsibility
Credits: 1.0 PDU

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