Martinez, Andrea Career Exploration Paper
pdf
keyboard_arrow_up
School
Mt San Jacinto Community College District *
*We aren’t endorsed by this school
Course
103
Subject
Medicine
Date
Dec 6, 2023
Type
Pages
7
Uploaded by xndreeaa
Career Exploration Paper
CDE-101-1085
Prof. Lorraine Slattery
September 13, 2023
Part One
Growing up, I’ve always wanted to become a teacher. Each time my teachers would ask me
what I wanted to be I would say I wanted to be just like them, but as I grew up, I changed pathways. I
have two twin brothers that are younger than me that were diagnosed with ODD and ADHD at the age
of 2 years old. I have seen and experienced many things such as them being sent to get locked up in
elementary school for having a crisis to seeing my mom in need for help to guide them. It made me
furious to see how hard it was to find specialists that were bilingual to help guide them and be
supportive towards their disabilities, which made me want to be become a child life specialist to help
those parents and children in need for help and support. A child life specialist helps children and their
families overcome tough situations that occur. They typically work in hospitals with physicians and
nurses assisting children with disabilities, illnesses, trauma, etc. Based on Loma Linda University School
of Behavioral Health, child life specialists encourage optimum development for children and supply
emotional support to them and their families. According to Cleveland Clinic, child life specialists also
teach affective coping skills such as play, preparation, education, and self-expression activities. This
helps to monitor and observe one's behavior as well as seeing the outcomes of it.
To become a child life specialist there are many skills that are needed. Based on Mayo Clinic
College of Medicine and Science, it is needed to have a passion for working with kids as well as excellent
communication skills. You will need patience for working with kids and emotional skills to help manage
families with emotional stress. According to Cleveland Clinic, you will also need child development and
great coping skills. This will help with being more understanding towards the child and how they take
things as well as helping them get through tough times.
In order to become a child life specialist, certain education along with units are needed.
According to Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science, a bachelor's degree in child life studies or
equivalent is needed to become a child life specialist. This can vary from child development, psychology,
early childhood education, or child and family studies. A certification for the Association of Child Life
Professionals is also needed. Loma Linda University School of Behavioral Health mentioned requiring at
least 45 units before graduating and a minimum grade point average of a 3.0 on a 4.0 scale.
Professional experience is essential when wanting to become a child life specialist. In order to
become a child life specialist previous experience with children is needed. According to Mayo Clinic
College of Medicine and Science, an internship of 600 hours of child life specialist is needed from a
supervisor. The Association of Child Life Professionals states how a supervisor must have at least 4,000
hours of paid child life clinical experience prior to becoming a supervisor. It is also mentioned that the
supervisor's certificate of child life must be kept, and they shall take responsibility for the guidance and
educational development given.
The salary range for becoming a child life specialist varies from the rank that you're in. According
to ZipRecruiter (2023) the salary range of a child life specialist is divided amongst four parts: top earners,
75
th
percentile, average, and 25
th
percentile. Top earners typically have an annual salary of $68,464
getting $33 an hour. The 75
th
percentile have an annual salary of $59,600 getting $29 an hour. The
average have an annual salary of $50,083 getting $24 an hour concluding the 25
th
percentile having an
annual salary of $43,000 earning $21 an hour.
Like all other jobs, child life specialists have special duties to do too. Mayo Clinic College of
Medicine and Science states that one of the main duties is to advocate for the special needs of children
and their families. This is done by supporting and guiding families by providing them with information
and help needed. Since child life specialists are in hospitals and hospitals are typically packed, a day in
their life is remarkably busy. As mentioned, they go from assisting patients' needs to having
interventions with families as well as always being on the go.
There is a job announcement for the Riverside County for Social Services Practitioner II/III child
life specialist. This job helps pediatric patients find developmental concerns and plans, implements, and
Your preview ends here
Eager to read complete document? Join bartleby learn and gain access to the full version
- Access to all documents
- Unlimited textbook solutions
- 24/7 expert homework help
evaluates clinical services needed. It deals with difficult and complex situations on social services
caseworks of patients. If I met the qualifications such as having a one-year experience as a child
specialist in a hospital and having my masters, I would get this job. I would get this job because I will be
helping those families in need of help and emotional support. Not only that but most families are stuck
on the waitlist due
to how hard it is to find some who speaks their language and since I’m
bilingual in
Spanish I would love to help them out by getting them the help they need. Although this deals with
more difficult casework, I would love the opportunity to help guide patients in the right direction and
help them keep a healthy state of mind. What I would most like about this job is assessing patients'
needs and providing them with services they will need as well as counseling. I would like this because I
would love to that there is hope for the patient and there is help for them. What I quite like is
investigating services where physical or emotional welfare is involved. I wouldn’t like this because it will
make me feel sad upon certain cases I might interfere with.
There were quite a few job listings in becoming a child life specialist. Although some were far
like Orange, CA or San Diego, there was still some closest to home. The closest job listing near me had to
be in Loma Linda, Riverside, and Moreno Valley. Both included being a child life specialist although the
closest one being Moreno Valley was much harder and needed a master's degree. This left riverside
being closer and more accessible for me.
Part Two
After researching more on behalf of becoming a child life specialist, I am encouraged to continue
my path on becoming one. I would like to be the help and resource for children in need and their
families.
Becoming a child life specialist doesn’t just include supplying emotional support a
nd helping
overcome challenges but
it’s
open to providing procedures that can help reduce anxiety or fear a child
might have. It takes many skills and preparation to become this such as communication skills, problem-
solving skills, understanding emotions
and patience. One cannot work with children if they don’t have
the passion and patience for it. Dealing with children requires you to be patient with how they express
their emotions and how they come out towards you. This field requires you to slow down and look
briefly at the child’s background to help assist their
needs. Some qualities that I have that fit in with this
field is being understanding, having patience, and having excellent communication skills. These skills to
me are the most important skills in this field because without being able to understand someone you
can’t fully en
gage with them and without havin
g patience you can’t work with k
ids. Some other great
skills that I have
which I haven’t mentioned
are empathy and conflict resolution. These are great simple
skills this field looks for to help resolve difficult situations and show emotions making a patient and their
family heard. A skill that I learned about this field when doing research is crisis management. This skill is
more than jus
t a simple skill but it’s a very difficult and special skill. As I mentioned I have seen and
experienced so many crises
from my younger brothers and when I first saw them have a crisis, I didn’t
know what to do. It was exceedingly difficult to calm them down because as much as we would talk to
them and go near them it would get worse and worse. It was as if it wasn’t them but a whole different
person. Having crisis management as a skill is very
essential to help those families that don’t know what
to do just like I did the first time. I have learned that with crisis management you learn to stay the calm
as possible and be supportive of things they express. Great leadership skills needs to be shown as well as
problem solving skills and decision skills to help solve crisis.
I learned many things about this career, making the main one be there being different stages of
child life specialists. I believed that becoming one only required a bachelor's degree, but I was wrong.
Depending on how extreme your cases will get, the education levels needed will be higher such as Social
Services Practitioner II/III
requiring a master’s degree. I also learned an internship
is needed which I
didn’t know before. What surprised me was the requirements of the perso
n that is giving you the
internship because of how many hours they had to have that was paid prior to supervision they needed.
4,000 hours was needed prior which to me seems a lot but in reality, it can be done in around five in a
half months. I also learned that working at hospitals requires health clearance which I
didn’t know but
will need in becoming a child life specialist. Learning these things made me more interested in what I
will need to become a child life specialist. As I grow more into this field, I will most likely move my role in
becoming a supervisor or management for this so I can be higher and be dealing with more complex
things. Although dealing with more complex things are more difficult and harder such as dealing with
much more diagnosis and intensive treatment, it will relieve me to help the families that are in need of
treatment and clinical support. Overall, I will continue to pursue my career in becoming a child life
specialist by getting my degrees, certificates, and experience needed as well as my internship of 600
hours.
Your preview ends here
Eager to read complete document? Join bartleby learn and gain access to the full version
- Access to all documents
- Unlimited textbook solutions
- 24/7 expert homework help
References
Associations of Child Life Professionals. (n.d.).
Eligibility requirements
. Default.
https://www.childlife.org/certification/becoming-certified/requirements-after-2019
Loma Linda University. (n.d.).
Child Life Specialist (MS)
. School of Behavioral Health.
https://behavioralhealth.llu.edu/academics/counseling-and-family-sciences/child-life-specialist-
ms#:~:text=Bachelor%27s%20degree%20in%20the%20social,Health%20clearance
Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science. (n.d.).
Child life specialist - explore health care careers -
mayo clinic college of medicine & science
.
https://college.mayo.edu/academics/explore-health-
carecareers/careersaz/childlifespecialist/#:~:text=Successful%20child%20life%20specialists%20ha
ve,who%20have%20life%2Dthreatening%20diseases
.
Professional, C. C. medical. (n.d.).
What is a child life specialist? role, education & average salary
.
Cleveland Clinic.
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/22651-child-life-specialist
Ziprecruiter. (2023). Child life specialist salary in California.
https://www.ziprecruiter.com/Salaries/Child-
Life-Specialist-Salary--in-California