good work

I had a great two days at work this past weekend. As a child life specialist, the general goal of my job is to minimize the stress children and families experience during hospitalization (or visits to the hospital), and this can be done in many different ways. Since I'm a concrete person, I tend to view what I do in two general categories: 

1. preparation/distraction for a specific procedure (surgery, ED stuff, IVs, stitches, sedation, etc)

2. more open-ended support (inpatient stuff, medical play, normalization activities, etc)

Again, since I'm a concrete (or impatient) person, I typically prefer the procedural support since I have a specific goal that can be attained in a fairly short time frame. This is why the Pedi ED is my favorite area. Currently I'm working in a pediatric burn hospital, so I do a lot of both, but working on the weekends typically means it's quieter and there's a lot more down time. This past weekend was perfect- not too busy, but with a few kids who were off precautions and up for hanging out. I spent a lot of both days with a 20mth old and her family, and loved it. With this family I managed to utilize a huge amount of what I learned throughout grad school- medical play, sibling support, OR prep, parental support, etc, etc. It was so satisfying to be able to do all of what I was trained to do, and to see (and hear) what a difference it made. 

As I was leaving the parking garage on Sunday, I noticed this tiny snowman (which might be hard to see without enlarging) someone made on the corner of the wall. Since I was already stopped (and no one was behind me), I had to roll my window down and take a picture. It was a perfect end to a great weekend!