Job Summary
The postholder will:
1. Provide specialist knowledge and experience of hospital play to members of the multidisciplinary team.
2. Use play to bridge the gap between hospital and home, easing the adjustment for children and their families to a sometimes frightening environment.
3. Create interesting and stimulating play programmes for sick children and their siblings to meet emotional, social, and developmental needs, helping to alleviate emotional trauma within families.
Main Duties of the Job
* Promote the emotional well-being of children and young people in hospital across all areas of the Children's Unit.
* Organise distraction, therapeutic, and creative play activities to help children adjust from home to hospital and ensure ongoing stimulation during their stay or visit.
* Receive daily verbal reports on a child's medical condition and adapt play activities accordingly, considering each child's age, understanding, and condition.
* Assist in preparing children and young people for procedures or surgery using therapeutic role play to familiarize them with unfamiliar apparatus and techniques.
* Develop specific play programmes for children and young people with long stays.
* Provide targeted support to individual children as identified by the Consultant Paediatrician.
* Build supportive relationships with parents to help them understand the value of play and encourage parent-child play opportunities.
* Communicate effectively with multidisciplinary teams, especially nursing and education staff, reporting concerns and using play-based observations to contribute to clinical discussions.
* Support children attending as day cases, outpatients, or ward attendees.
* Maintain knowledge of basic child protection issues and follow procedures when concerns arise.
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