DISCOVER The Child Life and Creative Arts Therapy Department
January 2024
Child Life Expands to Pediatric Cardiac Clinic Through a partnership with the pediatric cardiac team, child life is expanding services to patients and families in the cardiac clinic for outpatient appointments. Kaleigh Bieling, a Certified Child Life Specialist in the Pediatric Cardiac Intensive Care Unit (PCICU), is leading this child life initiative. Pre Admission Testing Appointments (PATs) are appointments scheduled to prepare the patient and families for heart surgery and hospitalization. During PATs, the following is completed: vital signs, ECHO, X-ray, imaging, COVID19, evaluation by the cardiologist and anesthesiologist, and consultation with the surgeon. Kaleigh saw PATs as an opportunity to integrate child life into the cardiac clinic to expand on her work in the PCICU. When going to meet a patient and family at a PAT appointment, there are a few components that Kaleigh considers: the patient's age; developmental level; if it is their first surgery/admission to the hospital; and if the patient has a sibling(s). The cardiac physician assistants coordinate the timing of the family meeting with Kaleigh. When going to meet a patient, Kaleigh typically brings a few things with her to the cardiac clinic depending on the child's developmental level in order to aid in distraction, comfort and positive coping. While meeting with the patient and family, Kaleigh uses this opportunity to give a developmentally appropriate explanation of what admission and surgery will be like and address any questions and concerns. Kaleigh introduces services that will be offered while admitted, like art therapy, music therapy, mindfulness/meditation and animal assisted therapy. Kaleigh also explains how co-treating with other specialties like physical therapy can help with motivation and positive coping in order to make admission as smooth as possible for everyone involved. Meeting patients and families during PATs is helpful for Kaleigh to get a sense of what the anticipated needs will be for the patient prior to their admission. Kaleigh creates personalized name signs and room decorations depending on interests the patient shared during the PAT to help promote immediate rapport and relationship building upon admission. Kaleigh is working with facility dog, Amos, to soon integrate him into future PATs and prep books. Be on the lookout for that next step of child life in the cardiac clinic.
Kaleigh is pictured here in the Pediatric Cardiac Clinic using an OR prep book and distraction items.
Art Intervention Offers Opportunity for Contemplation Katherine Parker, Patient and Family Care Coordinator and a Licensed Art Therapist, works in collaboration with the Adult Supportive Oncology team to support families who are affected by a caregiver’s cancer diagnosis. Katherine offers developmentally appropriate language and resources for discussing diagnosis and treatment, provides personalized art therapy interventions to help children and teens express thoughts and feelings and meets with families in the hospital to help minimize anxiety related to the medical setting. For this intervention, the participant was invited to create three different images with the following prompts: draw yourself as a tree; draw your current mood in the form of weather; and draw a source of inspiration or strength. This provided the participant with a chance to reflect, express, and discuss their current physical, mental, and spiritual state. LB 2019
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