LSQ Founder Publishes YA Novel

Hello, Child Life! It has been a while!!! Don’t worry, this post doesn’t come without “welcome back” gifts (read on for extras).

Sarah Mendivel (the enthusiastic founder of LSQ) has been quite busy over the last few years publishing her debut novel Sam’s Theory and advocating for children with trauma backgrounds all over the world.

Sam’s Theory is a young adult novel written for teens with trauma backgrounds. What makes this book so unique? It’s jam packed with therapeutic advice and real-world examples of how to cope with teen stressors like peer networking, depression, hopelessness, anxiety, and regaining control after something scary happens.

The book just recently won the “Body, Mind, Spirit Award” for being so useful and is being used in hospitals, schools, treatment centers, and private practices all over! Wondering if it’s a good fit for your unit? Take a peek on Amazon or ask Sarah for a free copy! She gives them away to loving Child Life Specialists for free on her author website.

Want to know what else Sarah has been up to? Check out lots of interviews, guest blog articles, and other appearances she’s made at http://www.SarahMendivel.com. She hopes to reconnect with child life specialists again, as they are where her heart has always been!

Thought we forgot about the free goodies?! Check out Amaon and get a FREE KINDLE DOWNLOAD of Sam’s Theory May 30-31th, 2018! Stay tuned for more on Sarah, child life, and the community of kiddos we are all working so hard to inspire!

CHILD LIFE IS STILL HERE! GET EXCITED!!!

Sarah Mendivel, LSQ Founder & Author

 

Embarrassing Moments

We’ve all had those blush-inducing moments!

“It was the first day of my Child Life practicum. I was feeling good. I had just gotten my first hospital I.D. badge and I knew I was going to rock this practicum better than any Child Life student who had existed before me. I had the walk, had the look, had the confidence. The students around me stood no chance.

My new supervisor was a bit dry, and an obvious stickler for the rules. I was determined to impress her, so I hung carefully on her every word. I would lean in further than the other students as she spoke, trying to let her know that I was going to be her new star pupil.

In the middle of her orientation with us she got an emergency page. ‘Follow me,’ she demanded. We all scuffled like baby ducklings to keep up with her. She continued explaining the ins and outs of the hospital. Desperately trying to catch every word on the way to our first emergency, I concentrated my gaze on her as we walked, and my lean stayed studiously attentive. Well….apparently my attention to detail was so keen that I didn’t see a crash cart directly in front of me and BAM! I ran right into it! Not bumped into it, ran into it. I don’t know what bruised harder, my hip or my ego.

Everyone stopped walking, a few students gasped in horror. I winced, but swallowed the tears. I looked up at the supervisor I was trying so hard to impress and she stared at me dead in the eye and muttered, ‘Brings a whole new meaning to Crash Cart, huh Ms. Mendivel?’

And with that, she continued walking as I limped behind the others deciding that I’d maybe chill out on the ‘impressing people’ bit for a while.”

• Have an embarrassing moment you can’t seem to forget, or that others won’t let you? Email or comment them to us! Every moment is a teaching moment, so don’t be shy! LSQuarterly@gmail.com

Save the Date: CCLS Skills Exchange

Looking for a quick  and exciting 5.5 professional development hours? We’ve got just the thing for you!

Child Life Specialists from all over the country are booking their tickets for the hottest thing in Child Life learning: the 10th Annual Child Life Skills Exchange at Miller Children’s Hospital! Click here for more information!

3rd Annual Child Life Symposium

Loma Linda University is proud to announce their 3rd Annual Child Life Symposium! Celebrate Child Life in March by learning about self care and compassion fatigue. Click here for additional information!

When: March 7th 2013, 9:00am-1:00pm

Where: Loma Linda University, Loma Linda, CA

Cost and how to register: Click here or call (909) 558-3500 for additional questions

Keynote speaker Susan Murray, CCLS discusses “Revitalizing Professional Caregivers as ‘Kids at Heart’.” Susan has experience with several traumatology centers, is a Certified Playmaker (as featured in our September 2012 issue), and has held various child life specialist positions. Don’t miss a chance to hear her speak!

Happy New Year Child Life!

Happy New Year Child Life Specialists, students, educators, and lovers thereof! Light Spinner Quarterly has had an extraordinary year sharing the greatest field on Earth with you all. 2012 brought incredible moments to us and we hope for even more as we turn the corner into a new dawn.

What are your New Years Resolutions for Child Life? Let us know at LSQuarterly@gmail.com. Until then, check your inboxes for the latest issue of LSQ at midnight! Have a wonderful 2013!

Founder Sarah Mendivel has fun with 3 year old Isaac before flu vaccines! Tweet, Facebook, or email us a photo of your favorite Child Life moments of 2012!

Giveaway Alert: Humerus the Funny Bone!

Make your patients laugh by tickling their funny bone! We’re making it easier for child life specialists to bring on the giggle by giving away the very brand new Humerus & Ulnar  toy!

Humerous the bone tells hilarious jokes that are activated by clapping your hands. Easily wipeable and perfect for any children’s hospital! Great for distractions, medical education, and bedsides!

How to win: Subscribe for an online version of LSQ! One online subscriber will be chosen to win by December 15th!

Humerous the Funny Bone is one of the several awesome toys we will review in our 2012 December issue! Start making your child life wish list now!

December Cover Released!

It’s holiday season and Light Spinner Quarterly is decking the halls with interventions, the ultimate toy guide, and an exclusive interview with the elite child life specialists of La Rabida Children’s Hospital!

We know it’s a busy month of donations and special events for CCLS’ across the country, so we’re taking the guess work out of creating your hospitals’ wish list this year. LSQ’s toy guide gives you the edge on the hottest developmentally appropriate toys for the hospital; complete with a key illustrating which toy supports which domain of development.

Jam packed with intervention ideas, writing contest winners, and new year’s resolution ideas for child life specialists, the December 2012 issue isn’t one to miss!

Order your online version or print version today!

Note: Online subscriptions will arrive during the second week of December. Print subscriptions will arrive the last week of December, just in time for the New Year!

 

 

Nominate A Health Activist!

Attention Child Life Specialists! We’re excited to announce the start of the WEGO Health Activist Awards Nominations.

Child Life Specialists know a thing or two about being a hospital hero. Now’s your chance to recognize someone who has inspired you, helped you, or even changed your life this year – be sure to recognize all of your health heroes!

The Health Activist Awards honor the leaders who made a real difference in how we think about healthcare and living well in 2012.  Check out the awards below and start nominating your favorite Health Activists for their best work in 2012.

Click to Here Nominate a Health Activist

With over 15 different awards, your special child life professional can easily fit in! Nominate a coworker, classmate, teacher, supervisor, or Light Spinner Quarterly!

Questions? Get all the details on our WEGO Health Activist Awards FAQ page.

Deadline: Dec ember 31, 2012

Cool & Unusual

Recently, Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital just made a kid’s day in a big way by putting Superhero squeegees to work! Check out this angle!

Cool stuff happens in children’s hospitals everyday, especially when Child Life Specialists are involved. What kind of cool and unusual fun happens where you work?

Let us know and you could make the next issue of Light Spinner Quarterly! Email (LSQuarterly@gmail.com) us a photo, story, Instagram, or Tweet about your brag worthy moment!

Happy Child Life Halloween!

It’s that time of year again where Child Life Specialists celebrate the hospital with fun costumes, treats, and interventions.

What will your staff dress up as this Halloween? Share your photos and costume ideas with us! Post them on our Facebook page or Twitter feed. Want to make it into the magazine for best costume? Take a photo with your phone and email it to LSQuarterly@gmail.com!

If there are folks that know how to have fun in the hospital, it’s child life specialists! Don’t be shy, show off those awesome costumes!

Have fun intervention ideas to share? We’ll be touting some of our own in the next couple of weeks. Stay tuned!

Playworks Child Life Story Contest

LSQ’s latest issue focuses on grief and the complications associated with loss.

We have all been there. We’ve gotten close to a family, lost a patient, or have seen a child panic when their routine is interrupted.

We have also experienced triumph, happiness, and pride.

LSQ and Playworks.net is interested in the emotions you’ve experienced. We’re asking you (or a family) to write a short story about an experience you’ve had for a chance to win a 52 card deck of A-Z Onion Head Feeling Cards!

How to submit your story:

What: Writing Contest for CCLS, students, interns, parents, and children* (no need to be a professional writer! We have editors here, just let loose!)

Topic: Feelings in the Hospital (all emotions welcome). Choose a feeling, then tell us about an experience you had with this emotion. (e.g. Joy: Feeling joy that a scared child finally felt confident about surgery after your medical play teaching)

Length: 250-900 words (or 1-2 pages in Microsoft Word)

Prize: 52 card deck of A-Z Onion Head Feeling Cards. Use these with your patients to identify and explain what feelings that might be experiencing in the hospital!

Deadline Extended: November 15, 2012

Share this with coworkers, friends, and classmates! Submit group, team, or individual stories!

*Children’s stories will need to be submitted with permission by their parents

Child Life Interview Tips

Did you know the average recruiter/child life employer only takes 6 secondsto look over your résumé ?!

Trying your best to get a child life job, but can’t figure out why you’re not getting past an interview? Our latest September issue is giving you the edge in how to land your dream position!

Child life students, child life interns, and child life specialists internationally have been requesting some insight into the interview process.

LSQ sought the expertise of MoneyCrashers.com‘s co-founder Andrew Schrage to give you real answers:

“Self-confidence is a key to a successful interview, yet many people just don’t have it. Therefore, you’re just going to have to create some. Read your résumé  over a few times, compare your skill set to the requirements of the position, and simply convince yourself that you’re the best fit.” (excerpt from LSQ article) Andrew shares how to put yourself into a winning light during the hospital application, interview, and hiring process.

Some questions from our article:

* Child life applicants are competing against personal that already work at a hospital and want to move latterly

* Child life specialists having to move out of state for a position and what relocation fees look like

* Child life is an extremely competitive field to get into, what is the best way to create an edge in an interview? Words, phrases, and angles  to make you a more attractive candidate

* How to request a transfer if a CCLS is currently working in a unit that doesn’t quite suit them

Want the insider scoop? Subscribe online or in print today. Get the edge and land that child life position once and for all!

CACLP Conference

LSQ’s keeping you connected with extraordinary opportunities for child life CEU’s by inviting you to the 9th annual California Association of Child Life Professionals Conference! Check out their latest regional conference:

When:  November 17, 2012

Where: Rady Children’s Hospital, San Diego

Click here for complete details and registration information.

September child life specialist magazines are being shipped out this week! Have you ordered yours yet? Be expecting it soon!

Back to School Special: $5 Subscriptions!

Need something to get you back in the mood to hit the child life exam books? How about a little something to entice  your child life routine?

LSQ is giving you a steal of a deal! $5 buys you an entire one year online subscription to Light Spinner Quarterly, the world’s ONLY magazine for Child Life Specialists.

Hurry, this deal doesn’t last forever. Only child life and the difference child life specialists are making last forever!

Click here to subscribe!

Child Life Murals: Vote Now!

Want to make a difference for pediatric patients with the click of a button? Child Life Specialists are making an impact!

From Child Life Connection:

LSQ readers have been incredibly supportive of our past efforts – hoping you’ll help us one more time! Voting starts today at noon (PST) – just one single vote before 8/23 can help us win $5,000 to fund 10+ more Original Murals to help make hospitals less scary for kids (time/talent donated by local art students, funds cover cost of paints/supplies)!

Click here to vote for new hospital murals today!

Child Life: The New Generation

Child Life has come a long way since the early days of Emma Plank and the start of the Child Life Council in 1982. Light Spinner Quarterly reflects on the history and future of Child Life by sharing an article from our first issue.

“Child Life: The New Generation” by Diane Sharmel, CLS

If you asked the average adult how they feel about hospitals, you’d likely get the same reaction of fear, disgust, or disdain. Ever wonder where that reaction comes from? They were once scared children, hospitalized for a tonsillectomy, broken bone, or other serious aliment. It shouldn’t be a mystery, then, to find that these adults have children with similar fears of medical procedures. What if we supported an entire generation of children through scary medical procedures? What if ever child had a Child Life Specialist to explain why they you are in the hospital, what was about to happen, and then process your emotional and physical state afterwards. My guess is that in 20 years, when those children grew into adults who were asked the same questions about hospitals, their reaction would be far less inclined to the dramatic, and more neutral. We can all think of a time we wish we had a Child Life Specialist at our side.

To understand the Child Life of today, a brief glimpse at its history is prescribed. During the early 20^thcentury, in an age where so little was known about the psychological effects of the hospitalization of children, a catalyst of empathy was derived. In 1938, Emma Plank , an Austrian-born educator and former pupil of Anna Freud, relocated to the United States from Vienna. She pursued a Master’s degree in child development at prestigious Mills College before moving to Cleveland, Ohio in 1951. Plank studiously assumed the role of director at the Children’s House of University Hospital, which would later be named Hanna Perkins School.

Meanwhile, Nobel Laureate Dr. Frederick C. Robbins was administering a children’s TB unit at the City Hospital’s Toomey Pavilion in Cleveland. The Toomey Pavilion, a building dedicated to the treatment of contagious disease, was serving dozens of children in need of inpatient and outpatient services. Dr. Robbins took note of the interminable desolation that these hospitalized children were appointed to, and thought it would benefit them to recruit someone that could galvanize their environment. So, in 1955, Dr. Robbins extended an invitation to Emma Plank to City Hospital (now MetroHealth) to participate in the landmark creation of a “Child Life” program. After seeing the success of providing child-friendly developmental, emotional, and psychological support to hospitalized children, Plank’s practices began to spread. During her practices, she authored Working With Children in Hospitals in 1962, and co-founded the Association for the Care of Children’s Health (ACCH) in 1965. Plank continued to lead the Child Life program at City hospital until 1972. Read more by clicking here.

Want to read more Child Life related articles? Subscribe to LSQ!

New Child Life Jingle!

Sing along to our new tune! Subscribe here or sign up to receive more exciting updates about the world of Child Life Specialists!

Bereavement Workshop, Child Life

Southern California Child Life Networking Group (@ChildLifeSoCal) is bringing you an opportunity to learn about grief issues and earn CEU Credits towards your child life certification! Michelle Post of One Legacy will expand on topics covered in our September 2012 Grief Issue.

When: August 22, 2012, 10-2pm

Where: Northridge Hospital Medical Center

Cost: NONE

How to Register: Click here for registration form!

 

 

September Cover Revealed: The Grief Issue

LSQ is very proud to introduce our September 2012 cover! The Grief Issue will focus on hot button issues of loss in the hospital and the roller coaster of emotions that come with it. From child life specialists, to caregivers, to siblings, to the patients themselves, we all handle grief differently. Light Spinner Quarterly helps you cope in a way that prevents burnout.

Subscribe here to read about:

• How grief is processed developmentally in children
• Loss from a parent’s perspective. Listen to the angst, anger, and confusion these parents experienced to better suit your child life practices to their needs
• Stylized interview tips from Money Crashers for graduating child life interns or the CCLS looking to move up
• Creative, non-invasive pain management tips for the CCLS by our CCLS columnist Kia Beickert, including aroma therapy and reflexology during procedures
• Exclusive interviews with child life specialists in alternative settings
• Interview with CCLS Jon Luongo
• “Life can hurt. Play can help.” Playmakers teach us the importance of play in children’s lives, as well as our own
• Interventionpalooza! Need more child life hospital intervention ideas? We gotcha covered!

Join the rest of the child life community by subscribing to Light Spinner Quarterly now!

SUBSCRIBE BY AUGUST 1st AND YOU’LL RECEIVE A FREE COPY OF OUR “HOSPITAL ROLES” COLORING SHEETS FOR CHILD LIFE SPECIALISTS!

Playworks Subscriber Raffle Winners!

It’s here! If you subscribed to LSQ before the June 2012 issue, you were received a raffle ticket with your child life magazine for a chance to win a Brave Kid Cape Kit! Thanks to Playworks.net for offering up super cool prizes for our child life specialists internationally.

Watch the video to see if you won! 

Can’t watch the video right now? Here’s the list of winners:561433, 561278, 240959, 561410

If you won, email us at LSQuarterly@gmail.com. Claim your prize by July 15, 2012. If you don’t, we’ll announce new winners!

Want to play in our next giveaway? Subscribe for LSQ Online, LSQ Print, or LSQ Print/Online Bundle to be included.

Light Spinner Quarterly keeps you up-to-date with the latest happenings in Child Life. From step-by-step intervention ideas, to the hottest bedside activities and real certified child life specialist advice, we have it all! Don’t miss out!