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!
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