Child Life and Therapeutic Recreation Internship Program
Due to COVID-19 all internship and practicum dates are subject to change.
Internships
The Child Life & Therapeutic Recreation internship program at Mt. Washington Pediatric Hospital offers internships which meet the requirements of the ACLP of 600 hours and the National Council of Therapeutic Recreation Certification of 14 consecutive weeks or 560 hours. Interns are paired with a Certified Child Life Specialist or a Certified Therapeutic Recreation Specialist who provide supervised and guided experiences with children while supporting the development of professional child life skills and/or therapeutic recreation skills. Of the 600 Child Life hours, a minimum will consist of 2 rotations that are at least 6 weeks (240 hours) in length with one clinical rotation supervisor per rotation; the remaining 3 weeks (120 hours) will be completed as deemed appropriate.
Internship experiences include:
- Patient/Family care interventions
- Assessments and medical chart documentation
- Observation of outpatient clinic and day treatment programs
- Sibling support programs
- Community Re-entry and/or School Re-entry programs
- Structured group and individual program planning and implementation opportunities
- Attendance at interdisciplinary rounds
- Site visits to acute care facilities and/or local patient and family support organizations
Child Life and Therapeutic Recreation Programs
Interns and students work within the Infant and Early Childhood, School Age and Adolescent program, and various outpatient clinics.
Infant & Early Childhood Program
This is an inpatient program, which serves infants and toddlers birth to age 2. The average census is 40. It is a fast-paced program with infants being admitted with diagnoses of prematurity, neonatal abstinence syndrome, cardiac issues, feeding issues or infants with unique syndromes. Assessment skills, writing goals and objectives and child development are key area of focus. Individual and group programming occurs 6 days a week.
School Age and Adolescent Program
The School Age and Adolescent program is an inpatient program, which serves children age 2-18. On average there are about 15 patients in this program. Admitting diagnoses of these children may include: brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, burns and other conditions requiring rehabilitation. Group programming, assessment skills, and writing goals and treatment plans are key areas of focus. Individual and group programming occurs 7 days a week. Community re-entry programs occur at least 3-4 times per month.
Outpatient Services
Mt. Washington Pediatric Hospital provides outpatient services to patients in over 18 different clinics, serving infants through young adults. Our child life and therapeutic recreation specialists provide preparation, procedural support, and distraction for a variety of procedures including blood draws, baclofen pump refills, and Botox injections. Additionally, child life and therapeutic recreation specialists conduct developmental assessments of patients in our Lead clinic and Brain Injury clinic. Outpatient programming occurs Monday through Friday, and students are given the opportunity to observe and assist with clinics as well as given an introduction to the Denver Developmental Screen.
Program Requirements:
Appropriate fields of study and experience include child life, therapeutic recreation, child development, education, family studies, or related fields. Interns are strongly encouraged to become a member of the Association of Child Life Professionals (https://www.childlife.org/) or a state or nationally based therapeutic recreation association.
- Applicants must have successfully completed a minimum of 10 courses related to child life, therapeutic recreation, child development, or closely related field
- Applicants must have a minimum of a 3.0 GPA
- Applicants must be currently in a child life or therapeutic recreation practicum or have successfully completed a minimum of 100 hours in a hospital or closely related setting with children and families (i.e., volunteer work, paid work, field placement, or practicum
- Applicants must have 50 hours of experience with WELL infants, children, youth and/or families
- All interns must be affiliated with a college or university. Mt. Washington Pediatric Hospital will not accept any student who is working independently outside of the affiliation of a college or university.
Application Deadlines and Process:
All interested applicants should submit the following via email to: [email protected] :
Child LIfe Applicants
- Internship Readiness Common Application (application can be found on the ACLP website)
- Please note that as a part of the common application, applicants will also need to submit their academic transcript(s) and complete an eligibility assessment.
Therapeutic Recreation Applicants
- MWPH therapeutic recreation internship application
- Three (3) letters of reference via email to [email protected]. The subject line of the email should include the student's first and last name and the internship cycle--e.g. First Last Internship Applicant Fall 2024. Please label all attachments with the student's first and last name.
Note:
Priority and preference is for onsite interviews. No phone interviews are conducted. Any potential intern must also successfully pass a drug test upon acceptance.
If you have questions regarding our internship program or application requirements, please contact our internship coordinator, Sarah Beale, MS, CCLS, CEIM, at [email protected].