CHILD LIFE PRACTICE & TRAUMA-INFORMED CARE: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF THE ROLE OF CHILD LIFE SPECIALISTS

Abstract

Current and past research provides evidence that trauma has a serious impact on children and adolescents that can follow them well into adulthood. The idea of trauma-informed care was developed for healthcare professionals to be better able to provide care for those who have experienced trauma and minimize negative associated symptoms. This cross-sectional study was conducted to explore professional preparedness of child life specialists to include trauma-informed care into their current scope of practice. An online survey was created to assess child life specialists’ education, training, and perceptions of trauma-informed care in addition to demographic info. Data was collected via multiple online forums and resulted in 81 valid survey participants. Results of the study indicate that child life specialists are well prepared to include trauma-informed care into their scope of practice based on their reported levels of education and training. While trauma-informed care is a newer framework in healthcare, younger child life specialists felt more prepared to include trauma assessment into practice and overall hold positive perceptions of trauma-informed care. Child life specialists recognized the value of trauma-informed care indicating that it can enhance the visibility of child life among the medical team, while benefiting the individual patient health outcomes. Majority of child life specialists in the study believe that all pediatric patients should be assessed for trauma. More research on trauma-informed care within all healthcare professions is necessary to determine the best solution for trauma-informed care implementation. Child life specialists require additional training to utilize different trauma-informed care assessment tools and protocols. Additionally, a universally accepted trauma assessment protocol and training would help medical professionals to determine who is responsible to conduct trauma assessment and improve trauma-informed care implementation.