The role of a child life specialist in a paediatric healthcare setting: A Scoping review

Abstract

Child Life Specialists (CLS) play an essential role in supporting the psychosocial, emotional needs and well-being of paediatric patients and their families within various healthcare settings and medical encounters. They are certified healthcare specialists who form part of the multidisciplinary team, with their training in early childhood development and play. Their focus is on the optimal growth and development of the child, by aiding in reducing the negative effects children may experience in healthcare or other potentially stressful healthcare encounters. This scoping review explores the roles of the CLS within the healthcare setting. It further looks at the various interventions that the CLS utilises in these healthcare settings, which aid in reducing stress, anxiety, and trauma associated with medical interventions and hospitalisation. The Joanna Briggs Institute methodology for scoping reviews guided the scoping review. Literature searches were conducted using specific inclusion and exclusion criteria. The literature search included the databases CINAHL, EBSCOHOST, Pubmed and childlife.org. These were searched for publications and studies which examined the roles and interventions utilised by CLSs within various paediatric healthcare settings during the time period 2020-2024. The reviewers screened the literature to ensure that the data collected met the inclusion criteria of this scoping review. Excel was used during the data extraction phase to chart the most relevant information obtained from each article that met the study's objectives. This was further reviewed to ensure no reporter biases were present. The research yielded 203 papers after the removal of duplicates. The title and abstract of each article were further reviewed, where 139 papers were identified for full-text reviews. The final number of papers included in this scoping review was 37. Most of the studies identified utilised a qualitative methodology design. It was determined that many of the publications were by other healthcare professionals, the CLS was acknowledged in various roles within the healthcare setting, either as research participants or those providing the interventions.