In a break from the current edition of “This Old Boat”, I wanted to talk a little about transitions. Bob and I worked for 30 plus years in the health industry – starting as students progressing through all the levels to owning a practice and being a healthcare executive. As I began telling people at work about our plan, I got many questions about whether it would be hard for me to step away from a career that I have loved and that is part of my DNA. The answer is yes. It is hard.
Child Life Specialists are professionals who are trained to help children and youth cope with stressful life events. We use our knowledge of child development, and our assessment skills to provide evidence based interventions including procedural preparation and support, education, and therapeutic play. In my last role, I was the Director of Child Life and Expressive Therapies at Dell Children’s Medical Center. I was blessed to lead a team of 50+ amazing professionals who expertly support the care of children and families each day. This was not an easy job but an extremely rewarding one. I loved supporting my team in advocating for emotionally safe care for their patients. Supporting them in doing this incredibly hard work was like running a marathon some days. During our department “Dundies” (think “The Office”, thanks Andrea and Lauren!) I was given the “firefighter” trophy as my role often involved getting a call from a staff member who needed help immediately and my day would pivot. The role also took a lot of project management as we are a hospital that is physically growing as well as a department that is always striving to be innovative and expand into new and exciting programs. As I reflect on my child life specialist skills and my time at Dell, learning from my staff, my colleagues, and our patients and families, I realize there was no better preparation for working on “This Old Boat”.
Purchasing and restoring an old boat definitely qualifies as a stressful life event! And I have definitely had to “child life” both myself and Bob already on this journey! As we continue to explore Meraviglia and work to restore her, using the child life skill set will be key. The ability to assess, support, and distract will help us cope ( and yes, I did pack my child life “go bag” ). My administrative skills learned around innovation, the ability to be strategic and to pivot, and project management will also be beneficial. So while it was hard to step away from Dell (miss you all every day!) being a child life specialist is part of my DNA that I haven’t left behind but instead took along to help us navigate this new adventure on Meraviglia!