Paper

Today I have spent most of my day working on the paper that is due on Monday. I am writing my paper on what initially drew me to the child life profession, a brief overview of the child life profession and my overall experience. I am using literature articles to cite how important child life is and what roles it plays in the hospital system. 

Below is the 'surprise' I said would be here yesterday. It's a picture of me in my required uniform for the hospital!

DONE! DONE! DONE!

I am so excited to FINALLY be able to say I am DONE with entering all the reported internships (over 200). I am DONE with my 'resource book'! I am DONE DONE DONE. My book is 64 pages long. This includes the 11 pages of internships. I carefully resized each excel box to make it fit within a reasonable number of pages and then 'sorted' it through excel for alphabetical order by state. When I finished recording the internships this afternoon (around 4:00 pm) I had 36 pages, in size 6 font! I went back through and resized every box, made the font size 8 and got it to fit on 11 pages! I am so excited this book is completed. It is everything (and more) that I ever thought. I also added an about the author section per Dr. Bopp's suggestion. The picture below is the picture I included on the about the author page. Thank goodness I got my boyfriend to snap a picture of me at the Biltmore over Christmas break or future students wouldn't know what the author looks like! I can't wait to finally have this sucker bound and in the psychology department for good. 

I guess from all my excitement above you can guess that I have been working on finishing this book most of today / tonight. Now I've got to start this presentation, which will include a lot of information from my book. 

Check back tomorrow for a 'surprise' :) 

Bald Heads Are Prettier Than Heads With Hair

Today was a great day. I started off the day working on the list of internships. I have about 60 more to do now. It takes forever to get all the information I need for each internship site. I hope this whole book is a HUGE help to those who want to pursue a career in child life in the future. 

I also searched for articles to use in my final paper. At first it was hard to find articles on "child life", all my results kept producing articles that had "child" and "life" but not "child life". I went to the resource section of the child life website and found a page with a list of some published articles relating to child life. I took one of these and looked at where they got their articles to lead me to the articles I could use. I found about 12 I could use for my paper. Hopefully I will be able to get some information that will really help me explain child life and children under stress in the hospital. 

After completing all that I headed to the hospital. I had so much fun tonight, like always. When I first arrived, a child life specialist asked me to sit with a child in the hematology / oncology unit. I entertained and played with this 20 month old child for an hour and a half tonight. I never thought a 20 month old could make me laugh so much. She loved dora the explorer and would burst out in a laugh every time she changed the channel. We played in the playroom, in her room and went for a wagon ride around the unit. Although this patient is very sick, is missing all her hair (except her eyelashes), she is still a child that loves to have fun. I've had a pretty rough week and her laughter was just the 'medicine' I needed to bring my spirits back up. As much as I made her laugh, she made me smile and laugh too. I spent a lot of time in the hematology / oncology unit tonight. Every time I would leave she would blow me a kiss. Tonight is a perfect example of why I want to be a child life specialist. I want to bring joy to patients and make their hospital experience not as scary, and not so stressful. I want to see a smile on their parent's faces, knowing their child is happy for a moment. I did normal rounds in the epilepsy monitoring unit and half of the 5th floor (along with the hematology and oncology unit). I met lots of new patients tonight that were friendly and willing to play with me. This was so cool! 

My title reflects my time tonight in the oncology/ hematology unit. I met so many bald patients tonight and I was struck with how overwhelmingly beautiful they all are. These kids, with no hair, are cuter than normal kids with hair. 

Below are a few more pictures I've collected to illustrate child life!

Spreadsheets All Day Long

Today I worked on my list of internships from 2:00-8:00 pm. I honestly started seeing things because of how long I was looking at my computer screen. So far my 'document' of internships is 8 pages long, in size 6 font! I'll have to make it bigger before I print it, but its easier to manage in smaller fonts. 

I was able to get all the way through the 'M' hospitals. I have about 100 more to record before I'm finished completely. I still have some work to do on my book and I need to start researching for my paper. I will definitely be clocking more hours than usual this week trying to get everything finished. 

I can't believe Interim is almost over! I can't wait to go back to the hospital tomorrow!

Halfway

Today I met with Dr. Bopp about my resource book that I have been creating this interim. After our meeting I felt a lot better about my book and now only have some minor details to complete. I am still working on my massive spreadsheet of internship sites. It is really frustrating that I can only open so many links in a span of a certain amount of time. I am someone who likes to open a bajillion links on my computer in different tabs, and then goes through them one by one. Going through all the internship listings is definitely making me practice some self control!

I also went to the hospital today and volunteered. Many of my patients from last week were not there today. This is a GREAT thing because this means that they were able to go home. However, I couldn't help but feel a little disappointed in the fact that I wouldn't be seeing them again (hopefully). Today was basically the same as the past few times I've gone. I was able to make it to both the PICU and hematology / oncology units today as well. I also ended up cleaning a ridiculous amount of toys. Its necessary to clean the toys so infections, bacteria and virus' don't spread from child to child. Toys and games are a huge part of child life, as child life reduces stresses of the hospital through play. Without clean toys, the child life specialists and myself can't reduce stress through play. I took sometime this evening to clean all the toys on the 6th floor, and both playrooms as well. Its hard to believe how much dirt I STILL find in a hospital!

Below are a few pictures I collected over the weekend illustrating child life. Enjoy!

Working, Working, Working, Keep on Working...

Today I have been working extensively on my resource book. I have gone through all my information and formatted everything to be the same font, and have coherent font sizes throughout. I also moved all my information around into sections that flow the best. My book so far is 46 pages and I predict it will grow to be at least 50 pages. I need to add in some emails I have received from the child life council, as well as my spreadsheet of internship locations (which I am still working on. I am only on the hospitals that begin with "d"). I also have to scan in the 'common internship' application. I'll have to do this once my book is complete and I have left room for it. I will be meeting with Dr. Bopp sometime next week to discuss my book and get feedback. I can't wait to see what I've done well and what needs improving! 

Is THIS What It Feels Like To Be An Author?

I bet you can guess what I did today. Yup, I worked on my resource book for the psychology department. I'm trying to price out how I will end up binding this book. I've researched uploading a PDF of the book to a website that will actually bind the book. I can't decide if I want something that formal yet. 

Today I worked on the list of internships again. I'm struggling with how to fit all the needed important information on a 1 page spreadsheet (width wise). It will definitely be several pages long (length wise). I'm not sure how to make this work without publishing minuscule font. 

I also want my book to look coherent. I'm toying around with different designs, which is also dependent on how I end up publishing this resource book. 

I also read through some emails I have received from the child life council. I get these as part of my membership I paid for to the child life website. The past couple of emails have indicated changes in policies for the child life council. These will be important for future applicants. For example, in 2016, all hospital internships will have to be accredited in a particular way. This year (2012) is one of the first years that an internship has been REQUIRED to sit for the exam. Child life is only becoming more competitive, and these emails will be helpful for future students wishing to pursue a career in child life. 

I headed home tonight and will work on my book tomorrow from home. I am waiting to hear back from Dr. Bopp about whether to cite certain information and if so, how to do it. Depending on what she says, I will probably be adapting my book for that. 

Another challenge I am encountering is finding pictures for my presentation. The pictures I have posted on my blog are about all I have. I have not been able to take pictures yet, as there are certain regulations that have to be followed in a hospital setting. If any of my readers have suggestions I would greatly appreciate them!