Psychosocial Interview

Interview With The Mother
The parent I had interviewed was the mother of a 16-year-old son who was rushed to the hospital on Christmas Eve. He had passed out while standing during a hymn in church. He had collapsed over the pew in front of him. His mother and brother thought he was “fooling around” and pulled him upright. Once they realized he was unconscious, they laid him down on the pew and tried to get a response. It was over a minute and still no response, and the ambulance was on their way. When the EMTs arrived, he was awake but he could not talk, his body was cold, and his limbs were stiff. While the EMTs got her son in the ambulance and were running test, the mother, along with her family, were very emotional, worried, and
In the six weeks of this class I have learned that Child Life Specialist aim to promote and provide developmentally based psychosocial care for children in a health care setting (Thompson, 2009, p. 13). They focus on using play as a dominate resource for multiple aspects of a child’s psychosocial development such as: to allow the children to self-express their feelings; to understand medical experiences; to provide essential life experiences; and to retain self-esteem and independence (Thompson, 2009, p. 15). Gaynard et al conducted an observational study that looked at the role of a child life specialist as a member of the pediatric health care team (Gaynard et al, 1989). After observations were completed, data were organized into activity categories (Gaynard et al, 1989). The categories of observed child life activities were: direct services, patient support, therapeutic play, preparation and orientation, family support, amusement, growth and development, administrative activities, meetings with health team members, and social and other (Gaynard et al, 1989). These categories are essential in the psychosocial development of
In class we discussed that this is a growing field and many are unaware of what they do. The results of this study showed many discrepancies between what the child life specialists’ responsibilities are and what other health care professionals’ perceptions are of child life specialists’ responsibilities are (Cole et al., 2001). The overall theme was that child life specialists were viewed as important for the psychosocial wellbeing of patients, but had little power in the health care team (Cole et al., 2001). Advocating for their field is important to gain the respect and acknowledgment for what